Diversity Weighting Visualization

Violence / Detentions -- West Bank / Jerusalem Netanyahu halts return of Palestinian terrorists' bodies to their families JPost 28 Mar by Tovah Lazaroff -- The bodies of Palestinian terrorists will no longer be returned to their families. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday ordered Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon to stop such transfers. Israel believes these funerals fuel additional violence. Palestinians hold that these assailants are martyrs and have in the past held mass funerals for them in which their bodies are paraded on gurneys through their home villages or cities. Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan has already held onto the bodies of Israelis Arabs residents of Jerusalem who have carried out such attacks. Netanyahu's order extends that policy to the West Bank. http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Netanyahu-halts-return-of-Palestinian-terrorist-bodies-to-their-families-449485 Pictures: Signs of assault and beating clear on detained Palestinian children SILWAN (Silwanic) 26 Mar -- The Magistrate judge extended on Saturday the arrest of five Jerusalemite children until Monday. Lawyer Mohammad Mahmoud explained that the Magistrate judge extended the arrest of five children from the village of Al-Tur to interrogate them on charges of "throwing Molotov cocktails towards Beit Orot settlement"; they were arrested on Friday night. The children are: 17-year old Abdullah Samer Abu Sbitan, 17-year old Basem Maher Sbitani , 16-year old Siraj Mahmoud Abu Sbitan , 1

I love my boyfriend a lot, and I know he loves me too. We are each other's first partners and have been together for more than three years. I have told him we should take our relationship to the next stage and have sex, but he is old-school; he says we should wait till our wedding because he wants that old, sweet feeling of taking a new bride to bed. We have just gone so far as second base -- he always stops us before it intensifies. Does it sound weird to you? Sometimes I wonder if he is just not attracted to me or if he is insecure about the relationship. Or am I reading too much into this and should be grateful? Advertisement - Continue Reading Below You've found an unusual guy, but I think you're drawing a stark contrast here when it's unnecessary. His desire to wait to have sex until marriage is not necessarily so horrible that you should be worried or so wonderful that you should be grateful. I don't see why he'd want to marry you if he wasn't attracted to you, so you can probably scratch that fear off your list. If it's about some insecurity, it's probably more about his own issues than some concern about you or the relationship. When we talk about sex, we tend to think about our insecurities first, but maybe this is all about him: Maybe he's got an issue that he's having trouble discussing with you. Maybe he has a small penis or he's worried you'll be disappointed. Or maybe he's even in the closet. You shouldn't assume any of these are true -- I'm just trying to under

HP masterfully takes the detachable PC form factor and adds its own design touches to give the Spectre x2 its own iconic look. Blending high tech with high fashion--thanks to the Saffiano leather-like keyboard folio (included in the box)--the Spectre x2 blurs the line between modern art and a technology-stuffed PC sitting on your desk. As a detachable that supports inking capabilities, the Spectre also competes against Lenovo's Miix 720 , Samsung's Galaxy Book, Huawei's MateBook E-Series and Apple's iPad Pro. With its watchband hinge kickstand, Lenovo's Miix 720 feels more over-engineered than the Spectre x2, which looks sophisticated with its copper accents. The Huawei MateBook E-Series relies on Intel's lower power Y-Series processor, and theoretically will perform slower than the mainstream U-series Core i processor on the Spectre, Surface Pro , Galaxy Book and Miix 720. And Apple's iPad Pro, while being an excellent tool for drawing, doesn't come with the power of a full desktop OS. Cloaked in HP's now signature Ash Silver colorway that's part of the Spectre line along with copper metal accents, the Spectre x2 this year feels more like a piece of contemporary desk art with retro mid-century modern styling. This makes the Spectre x2 look more noticeable on a desk compared to its more utilitarian Surface Pro counterpart, and HP's design elevates the look of this tech-filled PC into something you won't want to stow away when you're not using it. The design of the Spectre x2

Nvidia had launched its GTX 980 last year, which was followed by the GTX TITAN X which has three times the video memory that was seen on the GTX 980. Targetted more at the high-end gaming and compute/professional audience, the GTX TITAN X costs double that of GTX 980. Clearly there was a gap between these two top end cards and as expected, Nvidia's latest card, the GeForce GTX 980Ti tends to till the gap. It is second only to the TITAN X in terms of feature set. AMD has launched the Radeon R9 Fury X and Radeon R9 Fury , which are its top of the line cards at the moment. We will be testing them in the near future. For the moment, let us check out the GTX 980Ti. Build and Design Nvidia flagship cards have kind of acquired a uniform design language. The GTX 980Ti like the GTX 980, GTX 780Ti, GTX TITAN and to an extent the GTX 690 before it, has stuck to the similar gray coloured design with slight variations. On a first glance, the designs look identical - the 65mm radial fan is the same, the flourescent green GeForce logo atop the card is the same, the gray/black sheath is the same. The card measures 10.5-inches in length. Under the gray metallic shroud, you have a black-coloured heat-sink though. Under the heat-sink, you have three heat-pipes that transfer heat from the GPU to the heat-sink. This is a departure from the vapour chambers used in the GTX 780Ti and GTX Titan. The GTX 980Ti adds in a backplate to the card to protect the PCB on the rear side. In addition to this, Nv

In terms of being competitive in the Indian smartphone market, Xiaomi has been making headlines in 2017. The brand recently trumped Samsung to be on the top of the smartphone sales list , based on data gathered from the top 50 cities of the country. But that certainly has not slowed down the pace at which the brand has been introducing smartphones in the sub-Rs 10,000 segment. The Redmi 5A is Xiaomi's entry-level smartphone and the successor to the Redmi 4A. Image: tech2/ Rehan Hooda While the sub-Rs 10,000 price segment has been Xiaomi's stronghold, the company dared to reduce the price of its entry-level offering, the Redmi 5A down to just under Rs 5,000 this time. While that may not sound like a massive cut, but in the entry-level space, it could be just the right price for feature phone users to jump ship to smartphones. Xiaomi is calling this 'Desh ka Smartphone' and the price point ends to justify it to some extent. The best thing about the device is its good build quality, a decent overall feature set and bundled software at the Rs 4,999 price point. Battery life seems to be disappointing, when compared with its predecessor, but that is something that can be optimised in future updates. You can still get days worth on regular usage, but since the Redmi 4A gave almost a day and half of battery life, the expectations from the 5A will also be to match that. When we reviewed Xiaomi's previous entry-level Redmi 4A , back in April, we concluded that it was 'one of the best e

Xander Audios, a Delhi-based company, is a new comer in the consumer space with audio entertainment offerings from 2.1 channel speakers, 5.1 surround speakers to tower speaker offerings. Today we review XA-599BT 5.1 surround speaker and see how it holds up. Build and Design: 4.5/10 Personally, one look at this speaker and it didn't exactly give me any confidence. But not being of the biased kind, I was eager to try out a new speaker from a new brand and see how it sounds, sometimes you can get some really pleasant surprises. These are not what you'd call good looking speakers I for one did not like the styling of these speakers at all; it looks very average and feels very average too. You will not get the finish and class you'd expect from well-known brands like Logitech, Creative, Sony, etc. In fact, right out of the box, you'll notice scratches and finishing issues. Though overall the finish of the sub-woofer felt a lot better than the Satellites. The bad finishing on the subwoofer unit straight out of the box The satellites are exceptionally light, it's as if there is no real weight to the speakers inside. The entire make is of plastic and wood and; one of the satellites even made a rattling sound indicating something loose inside. Xander is seriously going to have warranty claim issues from consumers. One of the Satellite speakers The front panel has the main buttons to control the unit. The buttons take time to respond and feel very tacky. The volume button is a little t

Last year bridge cameras became overly popular because they had far reaching zooms and the DSLR look that appealed to most audiences. However, a sub-segment of cameras also started gaining popularity and this genre of cameras came to be known as travel compacts. They offered the luxury of having a large zoom lens along with the ability to be pocketable as opposed to the bridge cameras. Building up on their existing range of PowerShot compact cameras, Canon has recently taken the wraps off the SX260 HS which is a successor to the SX230 HS. The older camera had solid performances when it was put to the test in our review. Today we take a look at the SX260 which has recently arrived at our lab. Read on to know more about this model from Canon. Design and Build Quality The Canon PowerShot SX260 HS has received a fair transformation as compared to the SX230 HS and both look attractive in their respective shells. While the SX230 HS was available in three colours, the current version is available in either black or pink. Canon has provided us with the black option and it features a band running along the side that is finished in gunmetal. The front of the camera features the lens that protrudes slightly away from the body. Apart from this, the face of the camera features an AF assist and a grip that had not been present on the previous model. Flash housed within the body of the camera Like the SX230 HS, the brand have added a 3-inch display at the back and it too features a resoluti

Gionee, one of the lesser-known brands in India, had recently launched a quad-core Android smartphone, the Dream D1 . It featured an HD AMOLED and is a good value for the price and build quality it offers. This time, the manufacturer has launched another smartphone with almost similar features. The Elife E3 was in our hands for quite a while and we put it under the scanner. Here is what we have to say about it. Crisp, Vibrant and clear 4.5-inch HD IPS display Design and build The E3 is well designed from all aspects. With a rubberised matte finished exterior, the E3 has a very strong and rugged frame. All the hardware is enclosed well within the 7.9 mm chassis. The dark front panel has a 4.7-inch display with a front-facing camera and three capacitive backlit buttons for Menu, Home and Back. The power and volume buttons are placed on the right side while the micro USB interface and the earphone jack is placed on the top. The other two sides are completely blank. The rear panel is made of a flexible polycarbonate plastic and fits snugly on the chassis. The rear side sports the camera with an LED flash and a speaker grille on the bottom end. The entire phone weighs around 125.5 grams and the slim form-factor together with the rubberised finish makes the phone very comfortable to hold and operate. 8MP rear camera with LED flash; rear panel has a rubberised matte finish. Availing a screen protector and a rear protection case for the phone would definitely be difficult for now,

Violence / Raids / Clashes / Suppression of protests / Arrests Israeli forces suppress West Bank marches RAMALLAH (Ma'an) 23 Jan -- Israeli military forces suppressed nonviolent marches in the occupied West Bank on Friday, witnesses said. In Bil'in , Israeli soldiers used live fire, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas canisters to suppress protesters. Activist Muhammad Adbi Abu Rahmeh was shot in the head with a rubber-coated bullet and taken to the Palestine Medical Center for treatment. Rahmen and Iyad Burnat , prominent activists from Bil'in, were hit by tear gas canisters. The march began after Friday prayers and commemorated the anniversary of the Egyptian revolution against authoritarianism. Meanwhile, Israeli forces suppressed a protest organized by the Palestinian National Initiative in the Hebron village of Susiya . Soldiers reportedly assaulted the secretary-general of the party, Mustafa Barghouthi , and other activists. Dozens suffered tear gas inhalation and four were detained. The coordinator of the Palestinian National Initiative in Hebron, Youssef Tmeizi, said the demonstration was part of a series of activities under the banner "If they chop down a tree, we will plant a hundred." http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=755986 'We will hit your wife, your daughter, and your kids' BEIT UMMAR, Occupied Palestine (ISM, Khalil Team) 22 Jan -- Early Tuesday morning January 20, 2015 at 3:00 AM, Israeli occupation forces invaded the home of the Abu Maria

Dear Nice Guy and Fuckboy, My name is Chelsea, and I am 22 years old from Los Angeles. I'm currently having relationship drama with a guy I've never officially been with. We've been on and off for the past three years. He's never been "sure" of our relationship. He has admitted countless of times he is afraid of us getting together and screwing things up so much that he'll end up losing me forever . So instead, we've been stuck in this in-between relationship for so long. The problem is no matter how hard I've tried, I haven't been able to shake my feelings for this guy. I've tried dating other people. I've gone off on my own and had amazing life experiences. I've even seen him with other women, all while telling myself that I don't love him when in reality, I never stopped. I have this unexplainable connection to him that keeps drawing me back. We constantly get into arguments about our relationship. I always express my desire for more, telling him that if he isn't willing to give me more, we need to end things. He always says he understands. He'll give me some space, and then in a couple of weeks, he'll text me as if nothing ever happened. And every time this happens, I give in because those last weeks without him were so hard. I start off strong, swearing I'll never see him again and finish off so weak. During college, I left one semester to study abroad. While I was away, he got another girlfriend, whom he appeared to be more serious about than he ever was with me. He was

Violence / Raids / Suppression of protests / Arrests -- West Bank & Jerusalem Israeli forces quell march protesting takeover of church property near Hebron, injuries reported HEBRON (WAFA) 11 July - Israeli forces quelled Saturday a weekly march calling to provide protection to al-Baraka church compound, near al-'Arrub refugee camp between Hebron and Bethlehem, against settlers' attempts to take it over. Palestinian and international anti-wall and settlement activists organized a weekly march in protest of Israeli 'Defense' Minister Moshe Yaalon's approval of the renovation of Beit al-Baraka church compound , which settlers claim they have previously purchased, as a prelude to the construction of a new settlement in its place. Protesters raised flags of Palestine and chanted slogans condemning Israeli occupation policies aimed at expropriating Palestinian land. Prepared to forcefully quell the march, Israeli forces cordoned off the area and physically assaulted protesters using their rifle butts, causing several protesters to sustain bruises and injuries. http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=28832 Shu'fat refugee camp: A young man was injured in his eye by a rubber bullet and another was arrested SILWAN, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) 12 July -- Violent clashes broke out today afternoon in Shu'fat Refugee Camp ; the occupying forces arrested a young man and wounded two others with rubber bullets. Thaer Fasfoos, Fateh movement spokesman in Shu'fat Refugee Camp, stated that

It's never been easier to take phenomenal photos. As smartphone cameras improve, and professional-quality lenses abound at affordable prices, your food, kittens, tropical landscapes, and #nofilter selfies have never looked better. But if you want to take your photo-editing game to the next level, whether you're a professional photographer, designing posters for work, or photoshopping inappropriate things into Trump's mouth , the right monitor can make a huge difference in the quality of your work. If you're serious about producing great photos, you'll want a monitor with clean, accurate colors, a display large enough to fit all the windows you need, and the appropriate settings and calibration tools for the work you're doing. Monitors vary widely in quality and price. We've compiled our favorite monitors for photo editors who are just starting out as well as for those with a bit more expertise (and money to burn). Here are a few monitors to make your photo editing a breeze: For Photo Pros: Eizo ColorEdge CG277 Image: eizo At $2,447 , this is one of the most expensive photo-editing monitors you'll find. But it also delivers spectacular image quality for photo professionals. It's a 27-inch screen with a 2,560 x 1,440 resolution -- that's better than its cheaper counterpart below, but not as dense as you'll see on 4K screens like the Asus PA328Q. Where this monitor beats some of its 4K competitors is its color accuracy. Its contrast ratio (1,000:1) is a bit lower than that

An explosion is seen during an Israeli air strike in Gaza City August 8, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer August 9, 2018 By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Eli Berlzon GAZA/SDEROT, Israel (Reuters) - Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip, agreed on a truce on Thursday, two Palestinian officials said, an understanding that would end an escalation in fighting that has drawn mutual threats of war. There was no formal comment from Israel, but an Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity denied a cease-fire had been reached. Israel rarely acknowledges reaching any such agreement with Hamas, a group it designates as a terrorist organization and with which it has fought three wars in the past decade. A surge in cross-border rockets and air strikes in recent weeks have prompted the United Nations and Egypt to try to broker a truce to prevent another all-out conflict. On Wednesday night and Thursday, Israeli aircraft struck more than 150 targets in Gaza and Palestinian militants fired scores of rockets including a long-range missile deep into Israel, escalating fighting despite the ongoing truce talks. "Egyptian efforts managed to restore calm between Palestinian factions and Israel that will end the current escalation," a Palestinian official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said. "Palestinian factions will respect calm as long as Israel does," he told Reuters. A second Palestinian official with knowledge of the talks said the cease-fire would begin at 2045

Amnesty International Report "Troubled Waters - Palestinians denied fair access to water - Israel-Occupied Territories." Review by Dr. Hanan Chehata, Middle East Monitor, (MEMO), London It is a universally known fact that water is an essential of ingredient of life. Without water there is no life and yet it is this natural, God given resource that Israel is deliberately and callously withholding from the Palestinian people. This week, (27th October 2009) Amnesty International published a report entitled "Troubled Waters - Palestinians denied fair access to water" which describes in shocking detail the extent of the humanitarian crisis that has been caused by Israel's deliberate, prolonged and spiteful withholding of water from Palestinian men, women and children. The Israeli authorities have full control over almost every aspect of the water supply in the region and they are wielding that control in the most inhumane manner possible as an economic and political tool of oppression. They are controlling the access to water supplies, as well as the amount of water that Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) have, and they are doing this in many deliberate and calculated ways, including: The destruction of existing water storage facilities. Blocking resources for reconstruction of water facilities. Denying access to water sources altogether Forcing rationing of water supplies Encouraging water pollution, contamination and the resultant water born diseases. Th

Adjust your expectations iStock/ballero For newly blended families, it can be tempting to give in to the fantasy that your holidays together will look like the Brady Bunch Christmas special. When reality falls a bit short of the mark, deflated hopes can wreak havoc with even the merriest group of people. This can happen to any family of course, blended or not, but the stakes can be higher for those within blended families, especially those that are new. "Make your holiday expectations low and create an environment where children, no matter their age, can feel safe to express that holidays may be hard for them, especially if their stepfamily is new in the making," says Mary T. Kelly, MA, a therapist and an expert on stepfamily relationships. "If appropriate, acknowledge that they are missing the parent they aren't with and may be struggling with feelings of disloyalty. Make your holidays light and full of humor. We tend to take ourselves way too seriously and this, more than anything, can cause us the most suffering." Find ways to incorporate past traditions iStock/Pekic A newly formed family doesn't mean that couples need to start from scratch entirely when planning ways to celebrate the holidays, especially if there are ways of celebrating from the past that still bring joy and meaning to all involved. Jaqlynn, a mom of two, recalls the early days of celebrating the holidays with her then-six-year-old daughter and new husband: "We didn't have the issue of splitting time duri

Media Complex Bombed, Two Children And Four Women Killed , Death Toll Crosses 100 By Ma'an News 19 November, 2012 Maannews.net Israeli forces bomb Shuruq media complex for second day. Israeli attacks killed 22 Palestinians on Monday, including two children and four women, and another man died from wounds sustained in an earlier strike during Israel's bombardment of Gaza GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces bombed a tower block that houses several international media offices in Gaza City for second day on Monday, killing a military leader of Islamic Jihad. Al-Quds brigades leader Ramiz Harb was killed and three others were wounded in the strike on the al-Shuruq building, including a cameraman for Al-Arabiya TV and another for Huna Al-Quds. The Israeli military said in a statement that Harb was "responsible for propaganda" for the brigades. It says three senior Islamic Jihad members were also in the building. Israel also struck al-Nuseirat camp in central Gaza on Sunday afternoon, killing Ayed Radi and Amir Al-Malahi, medics said. A young girl was injured in another strike on the Al-Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, and and a man was injured in Sheikh Radwan district. Israel also shelled Khan Younis in south Gaza, injuring two people. Israeli attacks killed 22 Palestinians on Monday, including two children and four women, and another man died from wounds sustained in an earlier strike during Israel's bombardment of Gaza. Attacks on media buildings Israel drew widespread local a

Ted Cruz (whose given name is actually Rafael Edward Cruz) is a Republican presidential candidate and Texas senator. In his high school bio , Cruz wrote that he planned to run for president, and now he is one of the leading GOP candidates. As a teenager, Cruz was a member of a traveling club called the Constitutional Corroborators , and he went around Texas and recited bits of the constitution from memory. Cruz has been clear about his conservative beliefs. Here's where he stands on 14 key issues. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Health Care Cruz disagrees with the Affordable Care Act so much that he once filibustered for a record 21 hours to try to block it. Since it passed, Cruz has remained an outspoken critic of the health care plan. He supported Hobby Lobby's challenge to the Affordable Care Act's birth control mandate , which requires most employers to provide contraception coverage to its employees or pay a fine. Reproductive Rights Cruz has always been strictly against abortion . Cruz led 13 states in asking the Supreme Court to defend a federal law that prohibits partial birth abortions. He also defended a Texas law that disallowed federal funds to go toward groups that provide abortion services, like Planned Parenthood. Cruz has a section on his website that asks visitors to sign a petition to fully defund Planned Parenthood. When asked about whether he'd support personhood bills, he responded : "I told you I'm not going to get into the labels, but what I w

Israeli soldiers kill one Palestinian, injure 220, in Gaza IMEMC 4 Aug -- The Palestinian Health Ministry has confirmed, Friday, that Israel soldiers resorted to the excessive use of force against the nonviolent "Great Return Match" in Gaza, on its nineteenth consecutive week, killing a young man, and wounding 220 Palestinians, including 90 who were shot with live fire. Dr. Ashraf al-Qedra, the head of the Public Relations Department at Gaza's Health Ministry, said an Israeli army sharpshooter killed Ahmad Yahia Atallah Yaghi , 25, on Palestinian lands, east of the Zeitoun neighborhood, east of Gaza city . It is worth mentioning that, in a previous protest, the soldiers shot Yaghi with live fire, wounding him in his leg. Dr. al-Qedra confirmed that the soldiers injured 220 Palestinians, including 90 who were shot with live fire, in the Gaza Strip. He added that the soldiers, stationed in their fortified sniper posts hundreds of meters away from the parameter fence, also shot six other Palestinians with live fire in the same area, and caused many to suffer the effects of teargas inhalation. The soldiers also shot four Palestinians with live fire east of Khuza'a town, east of the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis , before they were rushed to the European Hospital, while many others suffered the effects of teargas inhalation. Another Palestinian suffered a moderate injury after the soldiers shot him with live fire in his leg, and caused many to suffer the effects of tear

There is a huge uproar and rightly so about the Shiv Sena's statement of no voting rights for Muslims! I get it, South Indians to Biharis with Muslims being a constant, baying for the blood of communities is what Shiv Sena has done throughout its existence. What I don't get is the fact that people are actually expecting the government to do something about it 03 November, 2014 Statement On The Recent Communal Disturbances In Trilokpuri By People's Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (P.A.D.S) Members of P.A.D.S. have been interacting with and visiting residents of Trilokpuri ever since the communal disturbances started on Oct 23. Along with many other citizens we are involved in efforts to re-establish peace and in providing legal aid to those wrongfully arrested. This statement is based on our experiences 25 November, 2011 Minor Technical Hitches To Re-Conversion - Not Insurmountable By Dr. Sylvia Karpagam A satire on the drive towards a Hindu nation 02 February, 2011 In this complex political situation , where the struggle is for a more genuine democracy, with people at different levels of economic , social and cultural development , attempts by fascist parties to destroy the diversity in unity which Indian civilization is all about , is an attempt to destroy Indian society and the Indian State. The national flag represents the hopes and aspirations of the diverse people of India , whereas the Sangh Parivar accepted the flag and the Constitution of India when they faced a

Egypt faces daunting challenges as it prepares for broad presidential and parliamentary elections within a year. Ongoing volatility in global food prices will strain resources during this critical transitional period. As the world's largest importer of wheat, Egypt is acutely vulnerable to any surge in food prices. Wheat prices have risen 47 percent over the last year and other staples are rapidly approaching dangerously high levels. Food price inflation and volatility strike hard at the household budgets of average Egyptian families. Many of them spend 40 percent of their monthly income on food. As prices rise, purchasing power is eroded, and the recovery of Egypt's fragile economy during the transition is slowed. Ensuring Egyptians have access to a reliable and affordable food supply is an urgent priority for both Egypt and the United States. Regrettably, conservatives in the House of Representatives appear headed in a different direction and are slashing funding for international humanitarian assistance. This includes funding for emergency food aid, investments in women and small landholder farms, and efforts to combat climate change in some of the most vulnerable countries in the world. These drastic and shortsighted cuts undermine our strategic relationships with allies such as Egypt, undercut the jobs and farms at home that rely on selling U.S. goods overseas, and lead to increased levels of global poverty and instability that threaten our national security. The United

Dear Nice Guy and Fuckboy, My name is Nicole,* and I'm 26 from Houston. I'm having relationship drama with this guy who I really connect with, but he's unsure whether or not he's ready to commit . I've been seeing this guy J* on and off for a little over a year. We met at bar one night, and initially, things were great. We vibed in a way that I haven't vibed with anyone before. We were constantly spending time together, and he even introduced me to his friends and some of his family. For all intents and purposes, we were in a "situationship," AKA a relationship with no title. We had amazing chemistry, and were constantly joking and laughing all the time. I never felt anything like that before, and it scared the shit out of me, but I was all in. After about four months of seeing each other, I finally brought up the "What are we?" talk, and as I'm sure you can already guess, things began to change. He slowly started to remove himself from my life, and when I asked him why, he said, "I like you, I'm just not ready," which is understandable. He had just got out of a 10-year relationship (yikes). So, we just fell off. We would call or text every now and then and sometimes meet up at a bar or catch a Rockets game together, but it was always as friends. Then, I got annoyed at all the unkept promises he made to me. Don't tell me you'll text me the next day and not do it. Don't tell me we'll meet up for drinks the following weekend and nothing happens. Situations like that drive me nu

Violence / Attacks / Raids / Suppression of protests / Arrests -- West Bank, Jerusalem 'Fail to obey and we will break your legs' AL-KHALIL, Occupied Palestine (ISM, Al-Khalil Team) 24 May -- On the 21st of May, a 16-year old Palestinian, Baraa Kalaid Madhun , was banned from his own home in Al Khalil (Hebron). Armed Israeli soldiers came to his house at 8 pm and told him to step outside. Allegedly stones had been thrown at the military base, which is adjacent to Baraa's home, and the soldiers were accusing him of this incident. For four hours the Israeli forces searched the house, whilst Baraa was held at gunpoint outside. They then told him that for the next 30 days, he was not allowed to be in his house between 6 in the evening and 11 in the morning. The logic behind this arrangement is based on the assumption that if during these 30 days no stones were thrown, then Baraa would be found guilty of the initial incident. The soldiers threatened to break his legs if he did not acknowledge these restrictions. Since then, armed Israeli soldiers have been searching his house each night, to see if he is there. This latest incident is one of many. The family is constantly being harassed by the Israeli occupation forces. Baraa himself has already been arrested six times. During those previous arrests, the soldiers have been very violent, once even fracturing his shoulder. Related to one of his previous arrests, Baraa has a court case coming up on the 10th of June. http://palsolidari

Dear Straight Girls, I'm sorry to break it to you, but there's a little thing you do that annoys us lady lovers to no end. We won't stop being your friend or anything -- it's not that big of a deal. But, we do need to clear up a few things: If I had a dollar for every time a straight girl said to me, "I just wish I was a lesbian!" I wouldn't necessarily be a rich girl, but I'd absolutely have a few extra bucks in my pocket. I hear it when boyfriends do things that are a bit "dickish," and if a breakup is involved, it's even worse, sending the women into monstrous, man-hating modes. You're convinced that the root cause was some inherently masculine trait, something that comes with having a Y chromosome. This warped view may make you feel like dating a woman is a much better choice. You put us "magical lesbians" up on a pedestal. You think we'd be more understanding, and we'd listen to you and be all of the other things about which Beyonce croons in "If I Were A Boy." Again, I'm sorry to break it to you, ladies, but it's just not true. Unfortunately, I must dispel some of the myths you hold true regarding what it's like to date a woman. So, here's why you probably don't want to be a lesbian after all: Women can be dogs, too Let's take a trip to your local gay bar over the weekend. Look around, and I'm sure the sheer amount of "dyke drama" you witness will surprise you. There's a pouty girl over there, all melancholy, while her girlfriend flirts with the hot barmaid. Then, there

Relationships are hard. That's no secret. When things start to go wrong, it's easy to begin to question whether the two of you belong together. Even in a truly loving partnership, you may find yourself wondering, " Is my relationship dead ?" But the truth is, all couples have bad times, because, well, life is sometimes difficult. That said, though, the differences between relationships that come to an end and relationships that are able to make it through are often very stark. And if you're going through a hard time in your relationship, you might be looking for some signs that can help you figure out. Here's a list of indicators that your relationship still has the ability to keep going strong, if you want it to, despite your doubts that you might've reached the end. 1. You Still Enjoy Each Other's Company Sometimes, toward what feels like the end of a relationship, it can seem like you're always fighting. But the truth is in, in a salvageable relationship, you'll still have moments where you really enjoy each other's company . If you still like to do some of the things you used to like doing together, then there's still hope for your relationship. For example, maybe going to try new coffee shops was your thing, or maybe you just like to watch movies together every Friday night. In a relationship that still has a chance of working out, the two of you will remember how much you really like each other's company and will continue to enjoy it, even if you've been fighting. 2. I

Violence / Detentions -- West Bank / Jerusalem Israeli settlers open fire on Palestinian farmers, killing 1, injuring another NABLUS (Ma'an) 30 Nov -- A Palestinian farmer was shot dead by Israeli settlers on Thursday while he was working on his land near the village of Qusra , to the south of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank, according to local sources. An official who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank told Ma'an that Israeli settlers from the illegal Yash Kod settlement outpost raided Palestinian lands near Qusra and [other reports said the settlers were from Migdalim and Yitzhar] attacked a farmer, Mahmoud Ahmad Zaal Odeh , 48, as he was working the land. According to locals, Odeh attempted to prevent the settlers from entering his land, at which point, the settlers opened fire on him, shooting him in the chest. He succumbed to his wounds shortly after he was shot. Another Palestinian identified as Fayez Fathi Hasan , 47, was injured in the leg by the settlers' fire. Locals told Ma'an that Israeli forces detained Odeh's son and took him to the Huwwara military base nearby, and have not yet returned Odeh's body to his family. Shortly after the deadly attack, Israeli forces raided and surrounded the village to protect the settlers, preventing all Palestinian movement in the area. An Israeli army spokesperson told a completely different account of the events to Ma'an.... http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=779546 Hours after illegal colonist

Nadeem Muaddi Palestine Center 17 November 2006 Palestinian paramedics carry a wounded young man into Beit Lahiya hospital after he was injured during an Israeli military incursion into the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, 3 November 2006. ( MaanImages /Wesam Saleh) Overview: On the morning of 2 November 2006, Israeli military forces seized Palestinian airwaves to declare the Gazan village of Beit Hanoun a closed military zone and order all Palestinians residing in the area to remain indoors. Still recovering from the humanitarian crisis caused by Israel's June offensive, "Operation Summer Rain," [i] residents braced themselves for what appeared to be another looming attack on Palestinian civil society. What they didn't expect, however, was the week-long siege of brutal force and "reckless disregard" [ii] for human life that would eventually claim the lives of nearly 100 Palestinians and injure hundreds more - half of whom were women, children, and other unarmed bystanders. Beit Hanoun: Adding to the Public Health Crisis While the stated goal of the Beit Hanoun operation, "Autumn Clouds," was to "disrupt and prevent the launching of Qassam rockets into the State of Israel," [iii] the Palestinian Ministry of Health ( MOH ) described its social consequence as being that of a "massive humanitarian disaster."[iv] The MOH 's account, corroborated by a myriad of eyewitnesses, including both international observers and media sources, provides evidence of a wide range of huma

2. Despite all of this, there has been chronic failure by the international community, especially the High Contracting Parties of the 4th Geneva Convention and EU countries, to fulfill the afore-mentioned legal obligations. This failure has effectively encouraged the State of Israel (a belligerent occupation force) to continue to challenge international law, to act as a state above the law enjoying special political and legal impunity, and to persist in and escalate the perpetration of crimes and violations against Palestinian civilians in an unprecedented manner. These crimes and violations included: excessive use of force; willful killing and extra-judicial executions; settlement expansion, land confiscation, and continued construction of the annexation wall; destruction of civilian property; imposing collective punishment including closure and severe movement restrictions; torture and inhumane treatment; and denying justice to Palestinian civilians, including denying them reparation for crimes committed by IOF against them, as well as "non-investigation" of thousands of these crimes [3 ]. Over the past 6 years, these actions have resulted in serious humanitarian crises and in an unprecedented deterioration in the economic and social conditions of Palestinian civilians, including the increase of poverty and unemployment rates. 3. The requests of civil society institutions to the international community (especially the High Contracting Parties of the convention and the EU )

EGYPT SENT a message to Gaza and the world when its foreign minister, Mohamed Kamel Amr, visited the besieged Palestinian territory amid Israel's brutal air war . The Egyptian government appears to have played a central role in the push for a cease-fire that was floated on November 20--even as Israel stepped up its attacks on unarmed civilians. The imagery of Egyptian officials in Gaza suggested that post-revolutionary Egypt will be more assertive when dealing with Israel over Palestine, marking its distance from the Egypt-Israel peace deal of 1978, which Egyptian dictators Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak used to keep a lid on the Palestinian struggle ever since. But there may be less to Egypt's boldness than meets the eye. While Egypt is attempting to stake out a more independent foreign policy role in the Middle East, there are definite limits to its willingness to stray from Washington's line. Israel is constrained, too. Despite its aerial blitzkrieg and the bloodthirsty and even genocidal rhetoric of Israeli politicians, the country's military brass are loath to risk the defeat they suffered in the Lebanon war of 2006 or face the kind of international backlash that followed Israel's 2008-09 onslaught against Gaza . Israel's horrific but still limited attack can be seen not just as a probe of Hamas' military capabilities, but also a test of Egypt and other Arab governments in the wake of the Arab Spring. Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi For these reasons, the conventional wi

Shop owner in Hebron got both his front windows smashed by celebrating settlers HEBRON 27 Nov by ISM, Khalil Team -- This weekend in al-Khalil brought thousands of extremist Jews and settlers from all over Israel and abroad to celebrate the week's Torah study on Chayei Sara (Life of Sarah), where Abraham purchases the cave of Machpelah (which they think is in al-Khalil) in order to bury his wife Sarah. On Friday evening, a group of settlers coming from the illegal settlement Kiryat Arba attacked one of the two remaining Palestinian shops on their way to the Ibrahim Mosque in Hebron, which partly serves as their synagogue since the settler terror attack on February 25 1994. The Israeli soldiers present did not prevent them from committing this crime. After threatening the shop owner and his customers, and smashing both shop-front windows, they continued on their way to the religious festival, loudly shouting and singing. Although some Israeli forces along the street clearly witnessed this criminal incident, they let the settler-group go unhindered, leaving the traumatized shop-owner with the damage and the costs. Attacking shops isn't a rarity for colonial settlers.... https://palsolidarity.org/2016/11/shop-owner-in-hebron-got-both-his-front-windows-smashed-by-celebrating-settlers/ Violence / Detentions -- West Bank / Jerusalem PPS: 2 Palestinian teens assaulted by Israeli forces during detention RAMALLAH (Ma'an) 28 Nov -- Two Palestinian minors have accused Israeli forces

Palestinian schoolchildren walk past houses that were destroyed by the Israeli attacks, 14 September. Ashraf Amra APA images The day after it was reported that several hundred Palestinians escaping Gaza by boat had been murdered by smugglers in the Mediterranean, a prominent human rights advocate in Gaza said that these kinds of tragedies are a symptom of the seven-year-long Israeli-Egyptian blockade and the continuing systemic violence meted out by Israel in Gaza. Khalil Abu Shammala , director of the Al Dameer Association for Human Rights , told The Electronic Intifada on 16 September that the hundreds of Palestinians killed at sea were trying to "escape from the situation, the reality they live in Gaza. Seven years of blockade, three wars in six years and no hope." Along with a coalition of Gaza and West Bank-based human rights groups, the Al Dameer Association for Human Rights is collecting data across Gaza, assessing the humanitarian, health, environmental and psychological impacts of Israel's latest attacks. They are also establishing a legal file that could be used to pursue Israeli war crimes suspects in an international court. Abu Shammala told The Electronic Intifada that they hope to deliver the data and reports to a fact-finding delegation of the UN Human Rights Council, which is due to visit Gaza in early October. Listen to the full interview with Khalil Abu Shammala via the player, or read the full transcript below. Khalil Abu Shammala: Al Dameer started from t

2013 Ford Taurus Limited. All Photos by Randy Stern Name one of the most popular automobiles of the past three decades? If you said the BMW 3-Series, you are right - on a global scale. In the 1990s, the 3-Series began to outsell mainstream models around the world thanks to a boost in the economy across both industrial and developing countries. They were an outgrowth of a world run by Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, and Boris Yeltsin when the common person chucked the low-priced car for something ambitious and upwardly mobile. However, I ask the question only for North America. That should be an easy one to answer since you probably see at least a dozen of them on the road every day. They range from clapped out models from the 1980s to current members of the rental car fleet. Still, they changed the way we viewed the family sedan from the moment they arrived on the day after Christmas in 1985. In this case, it is the Ford Taurus. It was Ford's after-Christmas sale that prompted a visual adjustment for the American car buyer. The aerodynamic shape of the old Bull welcomed six passengers for commutes and road trippers alike. The size was right with its front-drive configuration, powerful V6 engines, spacious and intuitive interiors and huge cargo capacity. Millions of units later, many Tauruses are still on the road today. When production stopped in 2006 of the old mid-sized Taurus, Ford sought to replace it two-fold: The smaller Fusion and the larger Five Hundred. The Fusion has sinc

Dear Nice Guy and Fuckboy, I met this guy about seven months ago online. I'm 28 and he's 35. We had instant chemistry, good banter and the conversation flowed effortlessly. After about two weeks of constant messaging, without him asking me out or even asking for my number, I got a little irritated and took control of the situation. So finally, we ended up meeting that weekend. In person, we had crazy sexual tension and such a strong connection. We started seeing each other regularly after that, and he was great. But I did get the feeling he might have commitment issues. Things fizzled quickly between us, and I think the big reason for that is simply because I wasn't ready. I was dealing with a lot of personal issues, and I sabotaged a good thing. Overall, we still ended on good terms, and I took this opportunity to really focus on repairing myself. However, two months after we stopped seeing each other, he texted me out of the blue. Up until now, we continued to stay in touch every couple weeks. We were being extremely flirty with each other, and my gut feeling was that we both did still have feelings for each other. But soon, I learned that he had a girlfriend -- a serious one, considering they traveled to a different country together. A week after he got home from that trip abroad, I got a pretty flirtatious text from him. I called him out on it, and he responded, "I guess I'm taken." Looking back, from day one, he was never a straightforward person, and he hid behind joke

When it comes to people you care about, it's a given that -- any time money enters the equation -- things might start to get a little sticky, especially when it comes to the act of giving gifts for momentous occasions like weddings. Most of us are thrilled to be giving our just-married friends and family presents to start their lives together, but it can be confusing to the nth degree to pinpoint exact wedding gift etiquette. Figuring out how much to spend, what type of gift to give, and even when to deliver a gift is tricky, particularly if your generosity exceeds your budget. Luckily, there are etiquette experts ready and willing to answer any question that might arise. For nearly a century, one name has been trusted above all others when it comes to proper decorum: Emily Post. While Emily may not be doling out the advice anymore, The Emily Post Institute is a family business that spans five generations, maintaining and evolving the standards of etiquette that Emily Post established with her seminal book Etiquette in 1922. According to the Posts, though times have changed, the principles of good manners remain constant. From a primary office in Burlington, Vermont, The Emily Post Institute maintains a 25-book collection; publishes columns in Good Housekeeping , The New York Times , USA Weekend , and the Boston Globe; conducts seminars and trainings; and partners with businesses and non-profit organizations to bring etiquette and manners to a wide audience. There are current

Author June 11, 2018 Senator Ted Cruz spoke at the Faith & Freedom Coalition's Road to Majority Conference in Washington, DC. recently and despite being labeled "lyin' Ted" by Donald Trump during the primaries, laid out 7 specific victories President Trump has accomplished for Christian Conservatives since being elected. He took 25 minutes to outline these accomplishments, here's the condensed version: 1. The appointment of "principled, constitutionalist judges" Cruz pointed out that the number one voting issue for many Christian conservatives during the 2016 election was the topic of the Supreme Court nominees that would come with the Presidency. Donald Trump followed through with his promise to nominate a constitutionalist judge when Neil Gorsuch replaced the late Antonin Scalia on the bench. Cruz pointed out that not only did Trump nominate a great judge to the Supreme Court, but he has been bus nominating principaled federal judges as well. Gorsuch played a role in the controversial Masterpiece Cakeshop ruling , which Cruz praised, citing Jack Philips six-year-long legal battle for not baking a cake for a same-sex wedding. "If we lived in the sort of society that those who called themselves liberal prescribe, a tolerant society, that would have been the end of the story," he said of Phillips' case. "He would have lived according to his faith and we would have respected that faith and the diversity amongst us. But there are those with a legal agenda that wanted to drive th

Published 9:36 AM, August 08, 2014 Updated 9:50 AM, August 08, 2014 A young Palestinian boy walks over debris from a house that was destroyed overnight in an airstrike in Deir Al Balah, central Gaza Strip, 14 July 2014. Oliver Weiken/EPA MANILA, Philippines - It has been a month since Israel launched Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, triggered by the abduction and killing of 3 Israeli teenagers in the West Bank. Over weeks of fighting between the Israeli army and Palestinian militant group Hamas, nearly 2,000 people have been killed, according to the latest figures from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The current crisis is the latest in a long history of conflict between the two sides. This year's outbreak of violence is marked by continuous trade of rocket fire, attempts to broker truces, and the swift rise in casualties. Both sides also used media as tools of propaganda, blaming the other side for racking up civilian deaths and drumming up support for actions which, each claimed, were done to protect their territories. Here's a look at what happened over a month of deadly fighting. June 12 - Three Israeli teenagers are abducted in the West Bank: Gilad Shaer, Eyal Yifrah, and Naftali Fraenkel. The boys are students at a Jewish seminary, and went missing while hitchhiking between Bethlehem and Hebron. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he holds Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas accountable for the missing teenagers. Israel

DELHI/MUMBAI: Symbols of India's emergence as an economic powerhouse line the four-lane highway to Jaipur out of New Delhi: a factory owned by the world's biggest motorbike maker, glass towers housing global call centres, shopping malls for India's burgeoning middle class. One night in August here, an angry mob ran amok, burning trucks and government property and forcing traffic to halt and factories to shut. The rioters were incensed over an issue arguably as old as India itself: the eating of beef, which the country's majority Hindus have considered sacrilegious for at least a thousand years. Perhaps surprisingly in a country where so many people view cows as sacred, India could soon become the world's biggest beef exporter, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Most, though not all, of the beef India exports is buffalo, an animal less venerated than the hump-backed indigenous Indian cow. But the trade, even in buffalo beef, still evokes revulsion among Hindu nationalists. The sharpest criticism comes from the Bharatiya Janata Party. Its candidate for Prime Minister in next year's elections, Narendra Modi, has slammed what he calls the government's "pink revolution," (a play on the original agricultural or "green" revolution in India) and its "secret agenda ... for export of beef." India's vegetarian traditions and the Hindu aversion to beef mean only 2.1 million tonnes of beef are consumed domestically a year. That compares with 11.5 million tonn

Dear Deidre I HAVE the most perfect sex with my lover but it's breaking me up because he won't leave his wife and I don't want him to. I know that it wouldn't be right. I'm 21 and I work on the reception desk at a big car dealership. He's 33 and he joined as a salesman last year. When business was slow he would find time to chat and to tease me. We soon became really good mates. Then he got a new job and, before he left, he asked if we could stay in touch. I was surprised but agreed as he's not only fun, he's sweet too and a really fit guy. We chatted online and he said he had really strong feelings for me, but then he told me that he had a wife and a two-year-old baby at home. I felt really guilty at first but he wanted to meet for a drink "to explain" and I couldn't resist. He came back to my place for coffee. As soon as he touched me I melted inside. We had wonderful sex, but then he had to go home. We've been lovers now for six months. You probably think I'm a fool but it's not just the sex that he wants. He treats me so well and I know by the look in his eyes that he loves me for real. He's never spoken of leaving his wife and I know it wouldn't be fair if he did. I'm so madly in love with this wonderful man but what will happen to me? DEIDRE SAYS: I'm sorry but my guess is he'll leave you before long - or else you'll waste years in a dead-end relationship. You think he's wonderful but he's living his life like he's single and free when he's not. Take off the blinkers an

Palestinian boy standing against a pole watching the rubble left behind by Israeli bulldozers and tanks ( Johannes Abeling ) New tensions and clashes with unprecedented levels of violence and destruction have erupted in OPT . The month of May has brought a significant further deterioration of the humanitarian situation, especially in Gaza and Rafah. Between 1 and 25 May 2004, incursions by the Israeli Defence Force ( IDF ) into Gaza resulted in over 40 casualties and the total demolition of 202 buildings. 2,733 people have lost their homes and their belongings during this period. Since September 2000, house demolitions by the IDF throughout Gaza have left 19,230 people homeless in the Gaza strip alone. Two thirds of this homeless population is from Rafah. In various parts of Rafah, deliberate destruction of water and electricity infrastructure is threatening the health situation of the resident population in the absence of running water. The WHO warns of an acute threat of the outbreak and spreading of diseases in this context. Hundreds of homeless families and those fearing the destruction of their homes in the immediate future have sought refuge in several schools in Rafah. Sanitary conditions here are reportedly very poor and the risk of communicable diseases is rising from day to day. In addition to this, a long-term solution for resettling these families into new homes or temporary shelter is dim: the lack of adequate shelter is jeopardizing the right of children to educ

Israel's Systematic Violence Against Palestinian Women By Greg Shupak, Electronicintifada.net April 7, 2018 Israel's Systematic Violence Against Palestinian Women 2018-04-07 2018-04-07 https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.png PopularResistance.Org https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2018/04/180307-palestinian-women-e1523108422690.jpg 200px 200px Above Photo: A Bedouin woman watches as Israeli bulldozers destroy her shelter in the village of al-Araqib, August 2010. The village has been razed more than 100 times. Oren Ziv ActiveStills Crucial to Israeli colonialism is an attempt at the destruction of Palestinian society. This is part of a bid to secure demographic majority over non-Jewish people across all of historic Palestine and maximal control over the territory and its resources. Pursuing these goals necessarily involves hindering Palestinians' ability to raise their next generation and to sustain, educate and care for themselves and each other. The institutionalized destruction of Palestinian women's lives has thus been an essential feature of the Israeli project. And as the world celebrates International Women's Day, and in a time of the #MeToo movement, it is important to remember how Israel has systematically carried out violence against Palestinian women, undercut their healthcare, and undermined their socio-economic conditions. In this regard, Israeli settler-colonialism can be seen as intrinsicall

What if Casanova, the famous womanizer of romance literature, had a gay brother? In Marten Weber's Benedetto Casanova: The Memoirs , he does. His fiction memoirs were "discovered" only in 1881, when an English traveler rummaging through a private library in Rome found them glued to the pages of a book. They were written in Italian and have never before been published in English. And who is this gay Casanova? A traveler, philosopher, diplomat, spy who was a great seducer of men, an 18 th century stud, a loveable smartass, and gorgeous power bottom. Weber, who has five novels under his belt already, offers up a fascinating combination of eroticism and history in a manner that keeps readers guessing. Fresh from winning a 2011 Rainbow Literary Award for the book, Weber chatted with The Advocate about truth, art, and the nameless man who "totally changed the course of my life." The Advocate: I have to say when you start the book -- without Googling to look up Casanova -- readers really have no idea if your book is fact of fiction. Was that intentional? Marten Weber: Of course this is entirely intentional and might seem like a marketing gimmick. But my publishers have made it very clear that it is fiction by putting the words "memoirs" and "translation" in quotes, and listing the book in the fiction and erotica section. Before publication, we showed the book to 50 test-readers and none of them had any reservations about this approach. I do think that the very excellent and stimul

Violence / Raids / Attacks / Arrests -- West Bank & Jerusalem VIDEO: Nabi Saleh Land Day protest met with extreme violence and live ammunition ISM 29 Mar Video by Anarchists Against the Wall -- On the 27th of March 2015, close to 200 protesters from all over the West Bank gathered in Nabi Saleh to protest the occupation in commemoration of Land Day ... On March 30th 1976 a general strike and marches were arranged all over Palestinian cities within Israel from the Naqab to the Galilee. The actions were a response to the Israeli Government's expropriation of thousands of dunams of Palestinian land. During the actions six unarmed Palestinian Israeli citizens were killed, 100 wounded and hundreds more arrested. It was the first time since 1948 that the Palestinians within 1948 Israel organized as a Palestinian national collective and the date is commemorated yearly with a series of protests all over the West Bank. This year the protests began on Saturday the 28th of March in Nabi Saleh. Around 12 pm on Saturday, protesters from all over the West Bank, from Hebron to Kafr Qaddum, gathered in the village of Nabi Saleh. The demonstration was a local protest in commemoration of Land Day and of the two villagers Mustafa Tamimi and Rushdi Tamimi , who were murdered by the Israeli occupation soldiers. After midday prayer protesters made their way down the main road of the village chanting and singing. On the outskirts of the village nine army and border police jeeps was gathered and as

Violence / Clashes / Arrests Jewish extremists named behind Jerusalem school arson AFP 11 Dec -- Three members of an extremist Jewish group were named by Israel i security officials on Thursday as being behind an arson attack last month targeting a Jewish-Arab school in Jerusalem. The Shin Bet internal security agency said Jerusalem resident Yitzhak Gabai, 22, and brothers Nahman (18) and Shlomo (20) Twitto of the ultra-orthodox Beitar Illit settlement were members of Lehava, an extremist group which fights against intermarriage. On Sunday, police announced the arrest of several suspects in the torching of a classroom at the Hand-in-Hand school, a rare symbol of coexistence, without providing further details. The Shin Bet said on Thursday the three had confessed, saying they had done it to "raise the issue of objection to coexistence and intermarriage to the top of the public and media's agenda". Lehava activists follow the teachings of the late Meir Kahane, a virulently anti-Arab rabbi whose Kach party was banned in Israel, a Shin Bet statement said, noting that the slogans "Kahana was right" and "There's no coexistence with cancer" had been scrawled on the school's walls. Police said Lehava activists were tied to a number of other violent incidents. Lehava leader Bentzi Gopstein said his organisation does not act illegally, accusing the Shin Bet in a statement of trying to frame Lehava to thwart its "holy work of saving the daughters of Israel". https://uk.news.yahoo.com/je

Gaza woman succumbs to wounds at Jerusalem hospital GAZA CITY (Ma'an) 4 Sept -- A Palestinian woman from Gaza passed away at a Jerusalem hospital due to wounds sustained during the latest Israeli assault on Gaza. Mariam Abu Amra , 23, died at al-Makased hospital in Jerusalem as a result of critical wounds she sustained in her chest in Deir al-Balah, sources at the hospital said. Her body was taken to Gaza through Erez crossing in order to be buried. Her death brings the total death toll in Gaza as a result of the more than 50-day Israeli assault to 2,154, as many Palestinians critically injured in the offensive have passed away. More than 11,000 Palestinians were also injured. The Gaza Ministry of Health said Thursday that 530 of the injured were transferred over the course of the conflict from Gaza to be treated in the West Bank, Egypt, Turkey, Germany, and Jordan. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=725556 Elderly Palestinian woman died from Gaza war injuries GAZA CITY (Ma'an) 4 Sept -- A Palestinian woman from Gaza died in an Egyptian hospital on Thursday from injuries suffered during Israel's assault on the besieged coastal enclave. Gaza medical sources said Itaf Muhammad Jarour was pronounced dead at the Nasser Medical Institute in Cairo. Jarour was injured in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on July 29, which killed one man and injured several others. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=725341 Violence / Raids / Illegal arrests -- West Bank / J

ARUNDHATI ROY reading from The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness at Bloor Street United Church (300 Bloor West), June 22, 7:30 pm. $8. Advance tickets sold out, rush seats available at the door. eventbrite.ca . It's been a 15-year-long quest for Anjula Gogia to get Arundhati Roy to speak in Toronto. Earlier this year, when the events coordinator for Another Story Bookshop heard murmurs about the Indian author and activist releasing a new novel after 20 years, she fired off emails to Roy's agent and to publisher Hamish Hamilton (an imprint of Penguin Canada). To her delight, Roy scheduled a Toronto stop as part of a book tour to launch The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness , her second novel, published two decades after she won the Man Booker prize for The God Of Small Things. "My nine-year-old daughter had to hear me screaming all day long when I got the letter of confirmation," says Gogia. "This is like a dream come true for me as a South Asian feminist activist bookseller." While the literary world has been waiting with bated breath to crack the spine of a new novel by Roy, she's been busy making headlines and penning essays. In 2015, for example, she met with NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden at the Moscow Ritz-Carlton at the invitation of actor John Cusack. Roy sees no great distinction between fiction and non-fiction, preferring to keep her "aching eyes open." She has published beautifully crafted, blistering essays denouncing India's nuclear tests, a controversial mega-dam proje

Brooke Atherton Qalqiliya , Palestine 29 July 2003 22 July 2003 -- On Thursday, a man in the streets of Qalqilia asked me, "Do they think we are animals? Not even human? They have put us in a cage." Every day that we visited the Qalqilia checkpoint, we watched the "progress" of the Israeli Occupying Forces' Apartheid Wall which is holding 40,000 Palestinians captive in their own city, on their own land (for pictures and maps see http://home.earthlink.net/~brookehatherton/id6.html ). Each day the fenced section of the Apartheid Wall on either side of the checkpoint looms closer to completion. In two days, trenches six feet wide and and equally as deep were dug on either side of the central fence. The next day, the Israeli Occupying Forces erected triangular coils of barbed wired eight feet high running the entire length of each trench. The concrete base for the central fence has been laid, and any day the 12-foot-tall fence will be erected, and possibly electrified. From the checkpoint, you can see more fenced sections of the Apartheid Wall snaking up the hilly Qalqilia region, through Palestinian farmlands and villages. On other side of the the wall where trees and crops once grew are 30-foot-wide roads for the vehicles of the Israeli Occupying Forces. Two large Israeli colonies (settlements) sit in plain view from the Qalqilia checkpoint on the side of the fence where people, Israeli settlers, can move freely as they please. As far as the eye can see, the Israeli Occupying F

A few days ago, I received fan mail from a guy who had read my last Elite Daily piece, " The Difference Between Needing, Wanting And Loving ." What caught my eye wasn't the length of his email, which was over 2,000 words, but the way he poured his heart out to me, and the heartbreaking details he shared. He met a woman while he was traveling for work in Asia. The moment they met, they instantly connected. They could talk about anything and everything. He felt as though some external forces were bringing them together. It all felt right. It was more than just love at first sight. Even after multiple date nights and several long-distance Skype calls, the attraction between them was unstoppable. It was like they were soulmates, and they had finally found each other. She had even suggested they involve their parents, and, of course, he agreed. "My parents would love you!" he told her. But then, things took an ugly turn when this woman went on this nine day trekking trip. She returned safe and sound, but on the inside, it was like she was a completely different person. All of a sudden, she seemed distant. When he asked her what was wrong, she replied, "nothing's wrong." But her disinterest in their conversations had become more and more apparent. Then, on the third day, she called it off. He was in complete shock. He tried to persuade her, but she told him she needed more time. He then set up a date, in hopes of rekindling some spark between them. Unfortunately, their date that ni

Contrary to what he and his boosters in some quarters of talk radio would have us think, Ted Cruz is most definitely not a Washington "outsider" or "anti-Establishment" candidate. For years, until as recently as 2013 , Cruz, alongside such insiders as George W. Bush, advocated on behalf of legalizing the country's millions of illegal immigrants. And though he and his defenders would have us believe otherwise, most Americans know that legalization, being the first step, as it were, to citizenship, is indeed amnesty . It is doubtless because Cruz wanted as badly as anyone to bring illegals "out of the shadows" that accounts for why, in spite of his self-styling to the contrary, he left it to Jeff Sessions (who, not incidentally, has endorsed Trump) to lead the fight against the Gang of Eight. In the early 2000s, Cruz joined the board of HAPI, an organization comprised of "conservative" Hispanics interested in advancing a "pro-immigration" agenda. HAPI worked closely with the Bush administration. Every proposal included legalization . In fact, among the policies that Cruz and his colleagues at HAPI supported was John McCain's and Ted Kennedy's "immigration reform" act of 2006! Robert De Posada, a former Director of Hispanic Affairs for the RNC and a founder of the "Latino Coalition," meets Cruz's current protestations that he never supported legalization in principle, but only as a strategy to derail the Gang of Eight's plans, with incredulity. "It's just a flat out lie. Period.

Palestinian students lay flowers on the desk of their classmate Bushra, killed by Israeli forces the previous day in Jenin, 23 April 2007. (Raed Abu Baker/ MaanImages ) The following is the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq's intervention to diplomatic representatives regarding the extrajudicial executions of Palestinians in the Jenin area: Your Excellencies: As a Palestinian organisation dedicated to the protection and promotion of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory ( OPT ), Al-Haq would like to raise its serious concern regarding the ongoing extrajudicial executions of Palestinians. Over the course of the last three months, Al-Haq has documented four incidents, the facts of which are summarised below, involving the extrajudicial executions of eight Palestinians in the Jenin area. The number of incidents, all of which involved disturbingly similar facts, indicates that, far from being isolated acts, the extrajudicial execution of Palestinians continues to be a widespread practice. Indeed, during the last year, Al-Haq has documented numerous other deaths attributable to Israeli extrajudicial executions. Summary of Facts On Saturday, 21 April 2007, two white vans containing Israeli undercover squad members parked by the roadside in front of the girls' school in the Jabal Abu-Their neighbourhood of Jenin city. The two vans, which parked on the same side of the road facing each other, were separated by a distance of 10-15 metres. At approximately 5:00

Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General of WHO . In its resolution WHA55 .2 of May 2002, the World Health Assembly asked me to assess the health situation of the people in the occupied Palestinian territory by paying a personal visit - as soon as possible - to the communities concerned. I have not been given the opportunity to pay a visit in the context of resolution WHA55 .2. I have compiled the following brief report based on data received by WHO and supplied by its own field staff, or through UN agencies, NGO s and other bodies working in the communities. Overall assessment The situation of people in the occupied Palestinian territory is deteriorating as a result of the escalation of the conflict compounded by further border closure and curfews throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip since March 2002. There have been explicit restrictions on population movements, which hinder the delivery of health care services. Humanitarian relief has been sporadic but the outlook is improving for getting essential supplies, food and shelter into affected areas. However, there is still grave concern at the lack - in some places - of water supply and sanitation. We do not have reliable community morbidity, mortality and disability statistics for 2002, but nutritional status assessments, particularly of children, do show a deterioration in recent months. One factor affecting the health status of Palestinians is severe damage to the commercial and social infrastructure, with a reduction

This column is part of a series based on seven days of meetings in Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Tel Aviv, Israel, with top officials and experts from the Israeli government, Palestinian Authority, and other international organizations. In his office perched high in the Tel Aviv skyline in the Ministry of Defense, an Israeli defense official sighed when discussing--with the delegation from the Center for American Progress currently visiting Israel--the turmoil and political changes taking place in the countries around Israel and predicted a "troubled coexistence" ahead for Israel and its neighbors. But when the discussion turned to specific, behind-the-scenes details of Israeli-Egyptian security coordination in recent months, this Israeli official outlined ongoing lines of communication across multiple points of contact. A separate discussion later that afternoon with an Egyptian diplomat based in Tel Aviv confirmed the basic details of multiple Israeli-Egyptian channels operating to address a range of security challenges. Although problems remain and the bilateral Israel-Egypt relationship is far from perfect, there are very active efforts underway to maintain the commitments made in the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty. When former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was pushed from office two years ago, many observers worried about the imminent collapse of the peace treaty. This hasn't happened--in large part because it remains in the overall national interests of both countries to

The U.S. economy is growing at a 4.8 percent annualized rate in the second quarter, the Atlanta Federal Reserve's GDPNow forecast model showed on Thursday, following data that showed domestic retail sales grew at its strongest pace in six months in May. The latest estimate on gross domestic product growth was faster than the 4.6 percent pace estimated on June 8, the Atlanta Fed said. The next GDPNow update is Tuesday, June 19. The Atlanta Fed's action came just hours after the government announced that U.S. retail sales increased more than expected in May as consumers bought motor vehicles and a range of other goods even as they paid more for gasoline, the latest indication of an acceleration in economic growth in the second quarter. Other data on Thursday showed a further tightening in labor market conditions, with first-time applications for unemployment benefits unexpectedly falling last week and the number of Americans on jobless rolls declining to a near 44-1/2-year low. The reports came a day after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for a second time this year and offered an upbeat assessment of the economy. The U.S. central bank described economic activity as "rising at a solid rate" and the labor market as continuing to "strengthen." The Fed forecast two more rate hikes in the second half of 2018. "In short, the Fed was right to upgrade its assessment of economic growth to 'solid' in yesterday's statement," said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Ec

New applications for U.S. jobless benefits increased more than expected last week, but the number of Americans on unemployment rolls fell to its lowest level since 1973, pointing to diminishing labor market slack. Other data on Thursday showed an acceleration in mid-Atlantic factory activity this month, with manufacturers saying they were boosting employment and asking for higher prices for their products. The combination of a tightening labor market and firming inflation bolsters expectations the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates next month. "The U.S. labor market is headed toward becoming the tightest in recent memory," said Kathryn Asher, an economist at Moody's Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 222,000 for the week ended May 12, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims data for the prior week was unrevised. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 215,000 in the latest week. The labor market is viewed as being close to or at full employment, with the jobless rate near a 17-1/2-year low of 3.9 percent. The unemployment rate is within striking distance of the Fed's forecast of 3.8 percent by the end of this year. The U.S. central bank raised rates in March and forecast at least two more hikes for this year. The number of people receiving benefits after an initial week of aid decreased 87,000 to 1.71 million in the week ended May 5, the lowest level since

When I was growing up in the '60s and '70s, it didn't matter that my parents were some of the earliest feminist leaders on the East Coast, that I grew up watching their activism from up close, or that I saw them live (not just profess) equality between the sexes. It didn't matter that I was a girl hooked on Ms. magazine from the very first year it was out, that I regularly flipped through my mom's copy of Our Bodies, Ourselves , or that I ravenously collected Wonder Woman comic books. Nope, none of that mattered. Not when it came to sex and male-female relations. When it came to that all-important thing, tv was my truth. At least, at first. In place of children's bedtime stories, my older sister and I got nightly doses of intense live drama depicting the struggles of people in pain, people pushing for change. While the United States was in the midst of great social upheaval--from the civil rights movement and anti-war protests to fights for gay and women's rights--my parents' theater and the plays they put on fiercely, heatedly enacted these struggles. Sucking our thumbs and dragging around our baby blankets, my sister and I got front-row seats night after night. My mother and father were partners. Throughout my childhood there was never any expectation that it should be any other way. They jointly ran the theater. They jointly ran our home. My mother did half the playwriting, half the directing. My father did half the child care, half the housework. My mother discussed polit

HANNITY: I want to go back because you talked about a flat tax. I have asked every candidate in every interview, 95 million Americans out of work, we have 40 million Americans on food stamps, 50 million in poverty, median income down in the last eight years under Obama, he will leave office having accumulated more debt than every other president before him combined. That, to me, is an insurmoutable amount of money that we're talking about. News came out today that we took in more federal revenues, $1.25 trillion in the last five months, but still have a $353 billion budget deficit for that period of time. The government spends too much. CRUZ: And our problem, we don't have a debt because we're undertaxed. We have a debt because Washington is spending money it doesn't have and digging us into a hole. HANNITY: How do you get Washington to spend less. I've always liked the "penny plan." Because it's simple. You cut one cent of of each dollar for six years and you get to a balanced budget. But that's part of it. What would you do? CRUZ: The only way you can do it with, one, strong conservative leadership in the White House backed up by the people. You know, one of the striking things last night, in the entire course of the debate it became very evident that Donald Trump has no solutions to any of these problems. HANNITY: [unintelligible] But I think the question most Americans want to know is how do you get to a balanced budget. But...eliminate baseline budgeting... CRUZ: All of

Expand | Collapse Rebecca Lindenbach, author of Why I Didn't Rebel Hello. My name is Rebecca Lindenbach, and I was the perfect teenager. Obviously I'm saying that as a joke, but by most standards I truly was pretty perfect. I never drank, never smoked, never partied, and never even swore in high school. I may have been moody, but I always had a good job, and was extremely involved in church and volunteered in childcare and youth ministries. I walked the straight and narrow all through high school, and continued that way through college and into marriage. I'm not saying all this to try and make myself look great-I'm saying it to make a point. I'm saying it to destroy a myth that has been hovering over Christian circles for way too long. Teenagers do not have to rebel. I am living, breathing proof of that statement. And I'm not the only one. I interviewed 25 young adults last summer to write a book about teenage rebellion and the results are clear--not all teens rebel. Before I continue, let me tell you something else about myself. I am not demure in any sense of the word . I don't like listening to authority, and I often get frustrated when I'm told what to do, or how to do it. I like to question everything, and I'm extremely stubborn when I think I'm right. Why am I telling you this? To prove that I'm not "naturally predisposed to submit." I'm actually the complete opposite. Whether or not teenagers rebel isn't contingent on their natural personality, and kids aren't "guarant

BEIT LAHIYA, Northern Gaza Strip (IPS) - Extensive damage to Gaza's environment as a result of the Israeli blockade and its devastating military campaign against the coastal territory during last year's war from July to August, is negatively affecting the health of Gazans, especially their food security. Safa Subha and three-year-old Rahat rely on Oxfam aid for food to fight malnutrition after having been accustomed to living on a diet of bread and tea. Credit: Mel Frykberg/IPS "We were living on bread and tea and my five children were badly malnourished as my husband and I couldn't afford proper food," Safa Subha, 37, from Beit Lahiya told IPS. "My children were suffering from liver problems, anaemia and weak bones. It was only after I received regular food vouchers from Oxfam and was able to purchase eggs and yoghurt that my children are now healthier." Lack of dietary diversity is an issue of concern, particularly for children and pregnant and lactating women, due to the lack of large-scale food assistance programmes and the high prices of fresh food and red meat "But it is still a struggle as I have to ration out the food and my doctor has warned me to keep giving the children these foods to prevent the malnutrition returning," said Safa. According to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in several communities, lack of dietary diversity was highlighted as an issue of concern, particularly for children and pregnant and lactating women, due t

Violence / Attacks / Clashes / Suppression of protests / Arrests -- West Bank / Jerusalem Palestinian boy, 10, critically injured by rubber bullet in Jerusalem JERUSALEM (Ma'an) 21 May -- A Palestinian child was critically injured after Israeli forces shot him with a rubber-coated steel bullet near the Shu'fat refugee camp on Thursday, witnesses said. Yahiya Sami al-Amudi , 10, was walking near a checkpoint by the East Jerusalem refugee camp when he was shot by the bullet. He was taken to the Hadassa hospital in Ein Karem with a fractured skull, jaw, and left ear and had surgery to remove his left eye. Medics said he is in critical condition. A spokesman for Fatah in the camp, Thaer Fasfous, condemned the targeting of children with tear gas, stun grenades and rubber-coated bullets. Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said that there were "disturbances" in the Shu'fat area after locals threw stones at municipality workers. Israeli border police used "non-lethal" weapons and a 10-year-old boy was moderately injured and taken to hospital, he added. fhttp://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=765554 Family of alleged 'attacker' receives body, mourns his death JERUSALEM (Ma'an) 21 May -- The Abu Dheim family received the body of relative Omran Omar early Thursday, who was shot by Israeli officers Wednesday after officers claimed he was attempting to run over border guards in occupied East Jerusalem ... Relatives and friends bid final farewell to Abu Dheim as mourners carried

Army fires gas bombs into Al-Makassed Hospital in Jerusalem IMEMC 2 Dec -- Israeli soldiers fired, on Tuesday evening, two tear gas bombs into the al-Makassed Hospital, in the at-Tour town, in occupied Jerusalem, causing many Palestinians, including patients, to suffer the effects of tear gas inhalation. Hospital administration said the gas from the soldiers reached the Children's Ward and the Intensive Care Unit, causing many patients, including children, and visiting family members to suffer the effects of tear gas inhalation. It added that one woman, accompanying her child in the children's ward, suffered burns in her hand after carrying one of the gas bombs and throwing it outside. The al-Makassed Hospital administration issued a press release, and an urgent call for international human rights and legal groups to intervene and stop the Israeli escalation and violations, especially since the hospital has lately become a target of frequent military invasions and attacks. The Israeli army claims it was searching for Palestinians who reportedly hurled stones and Molotov cocktails on their vehicles, during clashes near the hospital. The hospital has been attacked and invaded at least six times since October, and the soldiers repeatedly fired gas bombs, in addition to breaking into different sections of the hospital, including Urgent Care, and also stormed administration offices, looking for admission records of wounded Palestinians. http://www.imemc.org/article/74080 Violence

Violence / Detentions -- West Bank / Jerusalem Palestinian gunman shot dead after killing 2, injuring several in Jerusalem attack [with VIDEO] BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) 9 Oct -- An Israeli police officer and an Israeli woman were shot dead and at least five others were injured in a drive-by shooting near the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah Sunday morning . The gunman, a native of occupied East Jerusalem, was shot and killed by Israeli police at the scene. The shooting attack came a day after the gunman told Ma'an that he intended to turn himself in to serve a prison sentence, after he was charged with assaulting an Israeli police officer in 2013. According to a statement by Israeli police spokesperson Luba al-Samri, the gunman first opened fire across from the regional Israeli police headquarters while he sped towards the Ammunition Hill light rail station, critically injuring a 60-year-old woman, identified by Israeli media as Levanah Malichi, who later succumbed to her injuries after receiving treatment in a hospital. A man was also moderately injured at the same site. The gunman then continued toward a junction on the other side of the police station, where he opened fire at a woman driving in her car, moderately to seriously injuring her, al-Samri added. The assailant then fled toward Sheikh Jarrah as Israeli police special forces chased him, and he opened fire at them, critically injuring one policeman and lightly injuring another. The critically injured po

We're at a point where dating has become a very loose term. If it can truly mean anything at this point. It could mean you're going out for meals in public, or you could just be two Millennials, f*cking and texting. If I've learned anything about casual sex, it's that no one really knows what it means. Sex, by definition, is the opposite of casual. It is the most intimate thing two humans can do. So, what do you do when you want sex, but you don't want feelings? My conflict throughout the past few years has been trying to figure out how to find the balance of being single and independent (basically just living my life, according to Queen Bey), while not reducing myself to just a "booty call." While I know many women who are the ones who do the booty calling, it was not for me. If I have sex with someone to whom I have absolutely no emotional connection, I'm kind of just phoning it in. It doesn't do anything for me. I'd honestly just rather watch Netflix by myself than fake an orgasm with some random guy from Tinder. It's not a coincidence that the guys with whom I've had the best sex are the ones I also like as people. We get along, we make each other laugh, we are interested in each other's lives, we can go out for meals in public and have things to say and wait... this is still "casual" right? Wrong. When casual sex starts to turn into "friends with benefits," or anything in that category, it's great for a short period of time, but it has an expiration date. And, at some po

During a protest against the occupation of Palestine and Iraq, participants carried a mock wall stating "Israel's wall must fall" (Photo: Anonymous) The Commission on Human Rights began this morning its substantive work for the year, hearing presentation of the annual report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and summations of developments over the past year in occupied Palestine and in the activities of mercenaries. John Dugard, the Commission's Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967, said among other things that Palestinian living conditions had deteriorated significantly over the past year and Israeli construction of a massive security wall raised a real prospect that life would become so intolerable for those villagers living in the subsequent "Closed Zone" that they would abandon their homes and migrate. Mr. Dugard's report was submitted ahead of formal debate under the Commission's agenda item on the question of the violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine, and general comment on the document will occur later in the Commission's six-week session. A Representative of Israel termed Mr. Dugard's report a wholesale rejection of the current complex situation in favour of a simplistic picture in which one side of the conflict had a total monopoly on victimhood, and said the report was well outside the realm of any reasonable discourse. A Representative of Pa

In an interview with French media, President al-Assad added that his mission, according to the constitution and according to the laws, is that the government has to liberate every inch of the Syrian land. Following is the full context of the interview: Mr. President, you have just met a French delegation of MPs. Do you think this visit will have an influence on the French position about Syria? This is a French question. We hope that any delegation that would come here is to see the truth about what is happening in Syria during the last years, since the beginning of the war six years ago, and the problem now, regarding France in particular, is that they don't have an embassy, they don't have any relation with Syria at all, so it's like... we can say it's a blind state. How can you forge a policy towards a certain region if you can't see, if you're blind? You need to see. The importance of those delegations is that they represent the eyes of the states, but that depends on the state; do they want to see, or they want to keep adopting the ostrich policy and they don't want to tell the truth, because now everything in the world is changing regarding Syria on every level, the local, the regional, and the international. Until this moment, the French administration hasn't changed its position, they still speak the old language which is disconnected from our reality. That's why we have a hope that there's someone in the state who wants to listen to these delegations, to the facts. I'

Ready to join the resistance? Sign up for Take Action Now and we'll send you three actions every Tuesday. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation's journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation , check out our latest issue . Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. Fight Back! Sign up for Take Action Now and we'll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation's journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation , check out our latest issue . Travel With The Nation Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine? Wreckage of the car Ahmed Al-Jabari was driving. Credit: Mohammed Omer. Gaza City --Casualties mount as the Israeli military continues to bomb the Gaza Strip. On Sunday Gaza's health minister, Dr. Mofeed Makhlalati, said the death toll had risen to seventy-five killed and more than 680 injured. So far three Israelis have been killed as result of Palestinian rockets fired from Gaza. Medical sources at Shifa Hospital say that 90 percent of the cas

By Samah Sabawi The reliance on the generosity of the imperial powers and the weak leadership of the Arab elites has been the principle cause of failure in Palestinian resistance For almost one hundred years of Palestinian resistance to the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine, various consecutive Palestinian leaderships have placed their trust in diplomacy and have looked with bedazzled eyes at powerful western nations, the international community and the Arab League to deliver them from the occupation and to bring a just resolution to the conflict. This is astounding when one considers that Israel, the reason behind the Palestinian people's dispossession, is a western colonial project that would not exist if not for the support of those same western powerful states and the complicity of the international community. When Palestine fell under British rule, the first Jewish military unit entered Jerusalem in 1918 alongside General Allenby, leader of the British expedition to conquer the region. This was one year after the British cabinet pledged to establish a home for the Jews in Palestine in what became known as the Balfour Declaration. Throughout its mandate years, Britain gave significant logistical support to make this promise a reality; increasing Jewish immigration, allowing Jewish militias to have an army and passing literally hundreds of laws that would permit Jews to take over Palestinian land. By the early 1920s, Palestinians started to realize that Zionists were

The Israeli soldiers guarding the Kiryat Arba settlement are demob happy. "Its our last day so lets talk freely", the senior officer says. "Our tactics are not working, security and co-ordination is weak and the violence is getting worse." Kiryat Arba sits on the edge of Hebron, the West Bank's southernmost city. On August 31 it became the crime scene for one of this year's most brutal terror attacks, when four settlers, including a pregnant woman, were shot to death in their car. Their killers have as yet evaded justice, in large part down to geography. The murders took place in Area C, which since the 1993 Oslo accords has been controlled by the Israeli military (IDF). C areas account for 60% of the total West Bank and the army have been unable or unwilling to provide security for them. Palestinian police require special dispensation to operate here. It has been a recipe for disaster; drug-dealers, car thieves and armed gangs are taking advantage of the luxurious freedom afforded by the absence of a recognised police force. Jari Kinnunen, lead police adviser for EUPOL COPPS, the European Union's special agency for assisting the Palestinian police, is a worried man. "We fear that C areas will become safe havens for criminals because these havens already exist. Without police there is a vacuum and vacuums are being filled by criminals." In H2, the C area of Hebron city, Palestinian residents claim they have no protection from the IDF. "They are not interested in Palestinian p

Palestinians receive their monthly aid from UNRWA in Al-Shate' refugee camp in Gaza City, 10 Sep 2006. ( MaanImages /Thaeer Al-Hassany) Projections indicate economic decline to levels not seen for a generation "The Palestinian economy in 2006 is highly vulnerable, being subjected to a process of de-development that recent events have only accelerated and deepened" The economy of the occupied Palestinian territory is on the verge of collapse, a new UNCTAD report warns. Dwindling donor support has left the Palestinian Authority ( PA ) in a perilous financial position and UNCTAD projections indicate that per capita income for 2006 will be half pre-2000 levels, unemployment will affect half the Palestinian workforce by the end of the year, and two out of three Palestinian households will fall below the poverty level. UNCTAD 's annual report on assistance to the Palestinian people ( TD /B/53/2) suggests policy measures and initiatives for averting economic collapse. It also calls for greater donor support and for more options to be put at the disposal of Palestinian policy makers. The report will be reviewed at the forthcoming meeting of UNCTAD 's governing body, the Trade and Development Board, in Geneva on 29 September. The Palestinian economy: decline and isolation By the end of 2005, the Palestinian economy was already too weak to withstand further intensification of the protracted conflict in the region, the report notes. Since then, it has had to cope with reduced donor assi

Palestinian civil servants wait to collect some payment after nearly a year without wages, outside a post office in Gaza City on October 29, 2014. (Reuters/Mohammed Salem) Ready to join the resistance? Sign up for Take Action Now and we'll send you three actions every Tuesday. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation's journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation , check out our latest issue . Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. Fight Back! Sign up for Take Action Now and we'll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation's journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation , check out our latest issue . Travel With The Nation Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine? For the past several weeks, a hostage situation has been unfolding in the Gaza Strip, but it's not what you might expect: two competing political factions are warring for control of the bureaucracy. Government workers have for months been struggling in protest and paralysis as t

A Palestinian service taxi travelling on a 'forbidden road' (Arjan El Fassed) B'T selem issues a new report today: The Forbidden Roads: The Discriminatory West Bank Road Regime. In its new report, B'T selem finds that Israel restricts Palestinian travel on forty-one roads and sections of roads throughout the West Bank, totaling more than 700 kilometers of roadway. B'T selem has divided the Forbidden Roads Regime into three categories of roads: "sterile roads" where Palestinian traffic is completely prohibited, roads where Palestinians require special permits, and roads with restricted access. The regime applies only to Palestinians. Israeli vehicles are allowed to travel freely along these roadways. Permits for Palestinians to travel on restricted roads are issued at the sole discretion of the Israeli security establishment. Rejections are given verbally and without explanation. According to the head of the Civil Administration, Brig. Gen. Ilan Paz, "There are no definitive clear criteria for examining requests for a permit." The Forbidden Roads Regime has been in operation for years, but the rules and regulations for its implementation have never been issued in writing. Thus, Israel frees itself of accountability and increases the arbitrariness with which it enforces the regime. The Forbidden Roads Regime operates under the premise that every Palestinian is a security risk. Based on this premise, the Roads Regime violates the rights to freedom of movement and to equality of

We too often find ourselves in situations that, once in them, there is no easy way out. No matter the words people use to make us believe differently, we all deal with issues so large, they dwarf our perceived ability to negotiate them. Young women, especially, face this reality every day. They need to know they are not alone. They need to know the bravery it takes to face the tough choices is not only required of them, but of the millions of women who have come to the same crossroads before and of the women who will arrive there later. They need to know that, though the decision may seem easy in the short term, the pain of having to choose never dissipates. Our only choices are then to either remove the yoke of living from our own shoulders (becoming an automaton devoid of anima and living life in anticipation of death) or press forward through the pain and find a way to give meaning to the sacrifice we made for our futures. This is not a letter to women and men who disagree with abortion. This is not an attempt to reach out and ignite a debate with any of you. This is not me trying to win anti-abortion believers over by telling you my story. This is not about your thoughts. This is not about your beliefs. This is not about your feelings. This is not about you. This is about my child. This is a story I am no longer ashamed to tell. This is a story of fear, pain, love and loss told on a level of intimacy you may never have experienced before. So, with that being said, here is

Suspended due to US pressure, East Jerusalem construction plan may be revived Haaretz 21 Nov by Nir Hasson -- Jerusalem's zoning board is set to discuss a plan on Wednesday to build 500 homes in Ramat Shlomo , a Jewish neighborhood located over the Green Line in East Jerusalem. The plan was approved two years ago by the Jerusalem Planning and Building Committee, but was later suspended due to pressure from the U.S. In anticipation of the inauguration of Donald Trump as U.S. president in January, city officials have begun to "thaw" building projects in the capital that had been "frozen." The envisioned project is to be built on a 76-dunam (19-acre) lot between the existing Ramat Shlomo neighborhood and the Palestinian neighborhood of Shoafat . The land for the apartment buildings themselves is owned by Jews, but private Palestinian land would be expropriated for the new residential area's roads and public parks. During a zoning board meeting two years ago, a researcher for a Jerusalem civil-society organization claimed that Jewish developers were profiting at the expense of the Palestinian landowners. Aviv Tatarsky argued that instead of allowing all of the owners of the land for the project, both Jewish and Palestinian, to profit in accordance with their share of the total amount of land, the project was designed so that all of the residential and commercial buildings would be on Jewish-owned land, while the unprofitable roads and public spaces would be built on Palestinian-o

In the much-hyped debate on the Uniform Civil Code and the Islamic conception of talaq-e-salasa (triple talaq), news media has understated a very crucial point. Just as the landmark developments in law brought about by judicial pronouncements could not receive the required attention of media, the misreading of religious texts has been wholly ignored in the debate. One thing should be patently clear. It is the self-styled religionists, particularly the priestly class, who are vehemently opposed to equal rights for women. Religion per se is adaptable to and compatible with any civil code providing justice, equality and dignity for women regardless of caste and creed. No religious scripture attaches sanctity to the men who let their womenfolk down. But the current political polemics over religion vs constitution depict a diametrically different phenomenon. The Uniform Civil Code has become such a controversial and confusing issue that it now seems 'better to be put out of the discussion'. It is only being misused by the political pundits and the male-centred clergy as a ploy to maintain their hegemony. Representational image. AFP Inevitably, the evolution of a Uniform Civil Code seems as much of a constitutional quandary as the abolishment of personal laws of religions. Therefore, the first thing that all religious communities need to do is undergo an introspection to make sure whether their personal laws guarantee justice, equality and dignity for all. In this context, the note

I am a therapist, but I am not your therapist. Therapy, in my opinion, is not just about the information I give, but also about the highly individualized relationship I build with each client, getting to know their unique needs, strengths, and challenges. This column is not meant to substitute individual therapy. When in doubt, speak to a therapist about these issues -- preferably someone who knows you, who you feel safe with, and who is equipped to support you exactly as you are. ** All of the questions I received were complex, and profoundly honest. Thank you for your submissions. The questions answered in this month's column were edited for length and privacy, while attempting to preserve the original question. Dear Feminist Therapist, As I've become more outspoken about my politics, it's created a lot of rifts and awkwardness amongst my real life friends. I've been posting articles and comments that challenge things like porn and prostitution, but also that question things like "gender identity"... I had hoped that my friends could simply disagree and have a respectful conversation, but instead, I've been unfriended, ostracized, or publicly chastised and attacked by people who I thought cared about and respected me. It really hurts. How can I cope with this? Should I just forget about the people who treat me this way? Or should I be the bigger person and try to reach out and have a conversation? - A I'm so sorry to hear that being who you are -- who you want to be in this

The talks between Iran and the Western powers have ended but have not failed. They will reconvene next week. That in itself is a dramatic change from the past, when such talks invariably began in failure. In my book The Next Decade , I argued that the United States and Iran would move toward strategic alignment , and I think that is what we are seeing take shape. Of course, there is no guarantee that the talks will yield a settlement or that they will evolve into anything more meaningful. But the mere possibility requires us to consider three questions: Why is this happening now, what would a settlement look like, and how will it affect the region if it happens? It is important to recognize that despite all of the other actors on the stage, this negotiation is between the United States and Iran. It is also important to understand that while this phase of the discussion is entirely focused on Iran's nuclear development and sanctions, an eventual settlement would address U.S. and Iranian relations and how those relations affect the region. If the nuclear issue were resolved and the sanctions removed, then matters such as controlling Sunni extremists, investment in Iran and maintaining the regional balance of power would all be on the table. In solving these two outstanding problems, the prospect of a new U.S.-Iranian relationship would have to be taken seriously. But first, there are great obstacles to overcome. One is ideology. Iran regards the United States as the Great Sat

Israeli destruction in Khan Younis, Gaza. ( Ronald de Hommel ) Sharon's unilateral "disengagement" plan from Gaza does not seem to bode well for the future of the economy of the Gaza Strip. A careful reflection on the economic ramifications of what the plan has to offer will lead to this unfortunate outcome. According to the plan, and apart from evacuating the settlements in Gaza, Israel will continue to maintain full control of the border, airspace, and coastline envelope of the Gaza Strip. All border crossings connecting Gaza with Israel and Egypt, and through them with the outside world, will remain under Israel's tight grip. No airport, no seaport. The existing system of tight restrictions on the movements of Palestinian goods and people which has notoriously defined much of the post-Oslo era will remain intact. Furthermore, the same flawed Paris protocol that has governed economic relations with Israel since April 1994 will continue to apply. In fact, nothing under this unilateral disengagement plan will lessen the economic dominance of Israel over Gaza. How, then, the moribund Gaza economy, in this highly constrained environment, is to recover after three-and-a-half years of unprecedented decline due to the intensive use of Israeli military measures, and three more preceding decades of captivity and de-development under the Israeli direct occupation, and to be able afterwards to develop and prosper, is, therefore, beyond comprehension. True, international aid money will

Aadivasi's Cultural Identity In Jharkhand's Under Assault By Vidya Bhushan Rawat 11 September, 2015 Countercurrents.org A s I boarded the Rajdhani express from New Delhi for Parasnath for my intended visit to Jharkhand the co-passenger in the side seat was a young boy from IIT Delhi who happened to belong to Jain community and was visiting to Parasnath for religious rituals that his parents were performing. During the conversation he said that he is a vegetarian but definitely respect people's right to eat non-veg food. He opined that the world was changing and that a business community cannot be confined to narrow partisan and outdated thoughts that look down upon others who have different take on the issue. World is too diverse and as a global citizen you will have to respect people's personal choices to food and drink he said during the conversation. The boy laughed when I said don't he think that Jains are hypocrite as the biggest meat-beef exporters in India are Jains and Marwadis. His position was that we are in business and need to whatever is good but at the same point of time narrow attitude may be damaging for future of their business. It was a happier togetherness in the train for nearly 12 hours where I found how the Jain youngsters are changing and feel that their community needs to move beyond if it has to remain in business Parasnath railway station looked much cleaner and better than any of its counterparts in other parts of the state. It clearly indicates tha

(AP Photo/Michael Probst) When you think of women in Northern Syria, what do you picture? No doubt you're imagining women displaced by war and/or oppressed by ISIS. What you probably don't think of is its feminist activists and armed militants leading an unprecedented women's revolution. Although the Rojava Revolution receives little media coverage, it is fundamentally transforming Northern Syria's legal, political, and socioeconomic institutions. The dramatic changes in the role, and status, of women in society is perhaps where the revolutionary changes are most apparent. To appreciate the revolution's impact on women's lives, a basic understanding of the context it emerged from is needed. Patriarchal tribal traditions and male-supremacist religious beliefs dominate Northern Syria's society. And the Syrian Arab Republic did little to overcome Syria's gender inequality problem. In 2013, for example, the World Economic Forum reported that only 12% of the seats in Syria's parliament belonged to women, and women only occupied 10% of government ministerial positions. Before the revolution, women from Northern Syria's large Kurdish population also faced discrimination based on their ethnic identify. The Syrian Arab Republic attempted to forcibly assimilate the Kurds into the Arab population. It denied Kurdish identity, and banned the Kurdish language. The Syrian state deliberately kept Kurdish-majority regions underdeveloped and set-up Arab settlements starting in 1973. Syrian cit

One of the newer devices that recently rolled out of the Sony Ericsson shed is the Xperia Neo V. Designed to offer high-end like features at a reasonable price, the Neo V could mean serious competition for the likes of Motorola, Spice, among others. Here's a closer look at the latest handset in the Xperia Smartphone series. Design The Neo V is the Xperia Pro sans slide out QWERTY keypad The rounded ends gives it a neat "oval" shape, but what didn't work for us was the rather bulk design and 126g of weight it carries. The Neo V just looks a little odd in the ranks of today's slim handset configurations. A Mini HDMI and micro USB are located at the top of the device on either side of the 3.5mm handsfree socket. The screen lock/power button and camera activation/shutter release keys are on the left hand side of the handset with the volume rocker in between. Sony Ericsson has removed the 'Search' button and stuck to just three physical keys under the 3.7-inch LED Backlit display (480 x 854 pixel resolution). A VGA front facing camera is also present just above the display to the right of the earpiece. A tag of the plump side Thankfully, the Neo V features a hot swap memory card slot (up to 32GB cards) under the rear panel. The panel itself, though can be a little tricky to open, so you might want to avoid that task too often. Sony's Human Curvature design does make the handset slightly easier to grip, though. Features and Performance Interface With a 1GHz Scorpion processor power

As with the latest, largely symbolic, round of "peace talks" sponsored by France , discussion about real life in Palestine is frequently overshadowed by grandstanding and political abstractions. However, while diplomatic envoys busy themselves in pursuit of meaningless ways to re-label aspects of the status quo without changing anything substantive, it is possible to bring to light some of the real structural barriers to improving the lives of ordinary Palestinians. By examining the current state of the Palestinian labour market, this article shows how two main factors combine to produce serious social issues of concern. These factors are (a) Israel's restrictive and belligerent occupation, and (b) various weaknesses in the structure of Palestinian economic governance; together they produce high unemployment, low pay and the under-representation of women in the labour market. Working in occupied Palestine The Palestinian labour market is extremely weak. There is high unemployment and declining wages (in real terms), and the Gaza Strip is struggling to cope in the aftermath of a series of devastating military offensives by Israel . While conditions in the West Bank are not as obviously bad, there are troubling trends. These include the high dependence on foreign aid, a very weak private sector and extremely low rates of female participation. The West Bank's economy, in particular, is far weaker in structural terms than is apparent prima facie . As noted, the West Bank remains

While the celebrations for Israeli independence day are going on in other parts of the country, young Palestinian citizens of Israel observe a march taking place in the destroyed village of Hosheein in memory of the Nakba, 12 May 2005. ( MAAN news /Charlotte de Bellabre) The following is an excerpt from "The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel," a report issued in December 2006 We are the Palestinian Arabs in Israel, the indigenous peoples, the residents of the States of Israel, and an integral part of the Palestinian People and the Arab and Muslim and human Nation. The war of 1948 resulted in the establishment of the Israeli state on a 78 percent of historical Palestine. We found ourselves, those who have remained in their homeland (approximately 160,000) within the borders of the Jewish state. Such reality has isolated us from the rest of the Palestinian People and the Arab world and we were forced to become citizens of Israel. This has transformed us into a minority living in our historic homeland. Since the Al-Nakba of 1948 (the Palestinian tragedy), we have been suffering from extreme structural discrimination policies, national oppression, military rule that lasted till 1966, land confiscation policy, unequal budget and resources allocation, rights discrimination and threats of transfer. The State has also abused and killed its own Arab citizens, as in the Kufr Qassem massacre, the land day in 1976 and Al-Aqsa Intifada back in 2000. Since Al-Nakba and despi

The Palestinian struggle for self-determination has taken many routes and each, with its own twists and turns has taken the struggle forward in its own way. Subsequent to the Oslo process, one stage of this struggle, the era of exiled leadership and the armed struggle from outside Palestine, concluded. Oslo and its preceding related processes substituted dialogue for armed struggle and this was welcomed by the international community and a large sector of the Palestinian population, including those who had once thrown their sympathies and support behind the armed struggle. Dialogue finally seemed far more viable and likely to end the bitter years of conflict. It promised a just and lasting peace and a strategy to pave the way for Palestinian aspirations to be achieved. Equally, it promised Israel peace through recognition of its right to exist as a State within defined boundaries and with security. Tragically, the promises and prospects of Oslo evaporated into thin air with the failure to bring to fruition their intent. It resulted in deep frustration among the Palestinian populations and those in the international community who had dreamed along with their Palestinian compatriots that a just peace was possible, even imminent. In the aftermath of Oslo, it became apparent that Israel was quite unwilling to countenance even some objective essentials and fundamentals in the route to peace. The thorny question of settlements was one of these. Equally crucial was the failure to fi

Sykes-Picot, the Kurds and the Kurdish nation-state aspiration! The exploitation of the tribes of the region and then the lack of attention to the will of the people and the failure to fulfill the promises with a colonial look led to frustration and the emergence of nationalist, communist, military coups, and ... which, of course, it did not lead to a democracy based on the concept of a nation-state. Although all the problems in the region cannot be attributed to Sykes-Picot, surely a significant part of the current conflicts is rooted in this imposed division and colonial boundary determination, which contributed greatly to determining the fate of the people of the region and placed them under the influence of the colonial powers. Of course, the Arabs gained independence after some time (though they were affiliated with Patrimonial governments). But the Kurdish issue remained. The Kurds, who had great hopes for the formation of an independent state (especially after the Treaty of Sevres), after a while, they gained nothing and still remained within the framework of the nation-state plans. But changes in the Middle East happens quickly, and this region has been hotbed of important events with regional and trans-regional interventions in the context of the Kurdish issue. From the Kurdish guerrilla uprisings and great Middle East plan and the fall of Saddam and... the independent Kurdish debate, the Kurdish state and the large Kurdistan, consisting of four parts, has thrown Kur

06 November, 2015 Countercurrents.org I n these depressing times of communalism, growing intolerance, rising prices of arhar daal and no beef to eat anywhere,there is some good news for my fellow citizens. I have finally figured out why India, home to over a billion people, produces so few gold medal winning sportsmen/women or athletes at the Olympic Games. My insights - based on Vedic principles- if taken seriously by the current government, can turn around its rapidly falling popularity among the Indian people and also bring great prestige to the entire country globally. Some people (usually pseudo-athletic, neighbouring country-loving intellectuals) mistakenly think it is all about low nutrition levels of the masses, poor training, lack of infrastructure or state support for sporting activity etc., If these treasonous graduates from JNU are to be believed, India is a live version of the 'Hunger Games' and not an ancient and prosperous land of wise, tolerant, democratic, kind, generous, compassionate, animal-loving and highly spiritual people. That is all of course total Communist propaganda and for me the reason for our nation's repeated sporting failures is quite straight forward- the values of the Olympics are plain Greek to Indians. Let us face the truth - despite Alexander the Great's foray into the subcontinent two millennia ago, most of the sports at the Olympic Games are completely alien to the entire history, philosophy and ethos of Indians. By 'Indians' I mean of

Israel's Attack On Humanitarian Ship To Gaza By Michel Chossudovsky 16 May , 2011 Global Research T he Spirit of Rachel Corrie (officially known as FINCH) carrying a humanitarian cargo to Gaza was attacked by an Israeli naval patrol within the so-called Palestinian Security Zone on May 15, at 10.54pm EDT. In the course of the last few hours, Global Research has communicated several times with the Rachel Corrie vessel en route to Gaza. What is provided below is a detailed update. An earlier article was posted at 12.30am EDT The vessel left the Greek Port of Piraeus, on Wednesday, May 11. The humanitarian initiative is sponsored by the Perdana Global Peace Foundation (PGPF), chaired by the former Prime Minister of Malaysia Mahathir Mohamad. Participating in this mission are anti-war activists and journalists, consisting of 7 Malaysians, 2 Irish, 2 Indians and 1 Canadian. The Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) is a partner in this endeavor. Global Research`s Julie Levesque is on board the Rachel Corrie: The cargo ship The Spirit of Rachel Corrie (officially known as FINCH) is carrying 7.5 kilometers of UPVC (plastic) sewage pipes to help restore the devastated sewerage system in Gaza. The ship was named after the courageous American activist who was crushed and killed by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003 while trying to prevent the demolition of another Palestinian home. She died at 23. ( Perdana's Second Press Release, Nakba and the Spirit of Rachel Corrie: Humanitarian Ship

The political leader of Hamas, Khalid Meshal, has visited Russia and held meetings with senior officials, led by Russia's Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov. This is the third visit of a senior leader of Hamas since the movement's victory in the 2006 elections and comes sandwiched between the visit to Moscow of Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas and the visit of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The visit itself has to be judged a success for Hamas, even if it does not result in any tangible achievements, and as long as Hamas has not changed its demands or waivered in its political stances. During the visit, Meshal reiterated the movement's refusal to recognize Israel explicitly, while pointing out that Hamas accepts a Palestinian state on the borders of 1967. Moreover, the mere reception of Hamas by a state still classified as a great power and one of the members of the Quartet is a huge achievement. The movement is still under siege and listed by the United States and European Union as a "terrorist organisation" . Being welcomed by Russia is, therefore, some balance in the movement's struggle for survival. Hamas would no doubt have liked to raise the status level of the visit by meeting with President Medvedev. Although they failed with that objective, in meeting with the foreign minister the organisation maintained its previous level of representation, which is not what Israel and the US would have wished for. Hamas is keen to win Russian support for

When it comes to the various stakeholders in the Israeli Palestinian conflict Israel has guaranteed American support in almost whatever it does. Other stakeholders, including the EU, have consistently criticised Israeli government policy but consistently failed to back it up with any action. That is, possibly, until now. The Obama administration was castigated by the pro-Israel lobby for its supposed lack of support for Israel despite granting it a 10-year $38 billion military aid package , the likes of which no other state could dream to secure. In fact, over half the aid the US hands to other states goes to Israel. Obama missed a trick on not making the aid package conditional upon any progress in the talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, or a halt to settlement construction, which the US sees as "illegitimate". Neither Netanyahu's brazen snub to Obama when he addressed the US Congress without coordination with the White House, nor the humiliation of American Vice President Biden - who while on a visit to Jerusalem in 2010 was met with an announcement that Israel planned to build 1,600 home for Jewish Israelis in units in the illegal settlement of Ramat Shlomo which is attached to Jerusalem - was enough to trigger such conditioning. The US is a member of the Middle East Quartet now renamed the ' Office of the Quartet ,' which brings the EU, Russia and the United Nations together. It describes its mandate as "to help mediate Middle East peace negotiations and to suppo

Israel commenced its invasion of the Gaza Strip with air strikes on more than 200 sites, killing 24 Palestinians on the first day. Above, an Israeli missile hits a building just south of Gaza City on July 8, 2014. (Photo: Mohammed Saber, EPA) As Israel rolls deeper into its military offensive against the Gaza Strip, its tactics against the territory's densely-packed civilian population are becoming more and more clear. Over the last 17 days, the death toll has risen to at least 797 Palestinians, most of whom were civilians and nearly two hundred of whom were children. Despite near-global condemnation, Israel has not dialed down the brutality. The following is a list of ten documented Israeli military strategies that are responsible for the disturbingly high casualty count. 1. Israel is one of the best equipped militaries in the world and its weapons industry is responsible for many technological advancements in modern warfare. It should come as no surprise, then, that Israel has the capacity to strike its targets with extreme precision. In the past, Israel has assassinated Hamas members so precisely that others riding with them in their cars or walking alongside them have survived. This has not been the modus operandi for Israel's last three major offensives against the Gaza Strip, particularly this latest one. Even U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry commented on Israel's military strategy, sarcastically calling it one "hell of a pinpoint operation". 2. Israel contends

The PC industry has been waiting patiently for this day to arrive as it finally marks the transition to 22nm for desktop processors and all credit goes to Intel in being the first to make it happen. Today marks the day Intel launches their Ivy Bridge series of processors or 3rd Generation Core processor and the first bit of good news is that you don't need a new motherboard! This is great news for DIY'ers looking for an upgrade and it's nice to see Intel take a cue from AMD, at least as far as backwards compatibility goes. Intel will be launching CPUs and chipsets for the desktop and mobile platform and today we'll be taking a look at their desktop platform to see how it stacks up against Sandy Bridge and Sandy Bridge-E. The CPU and chipset Now before we proceed, here's a couple of things you need to know about Ivy Bridge. This step represents a 'Tick' in Intel 'Tick-Tock' cycle of upgrades. The 'Tick' stage is merely a die shrink of their current architecture, in this case, Sandy Bridge. Ivy Bridge is still based on the same microarchitecture as Sandy Bridge, only difference is that it's based on the 22nm fabrication process instead of 32nm. Of course, it's not just a die shrink as Intel has added some new features as well to Ivy Bridge which we'll get into in a bit. Ivy Bridge CPUs at launch Intel will be launching a slew of new CPUs in three variants of Core i7, Core i5 and Core i3. Starting with the high-end variant, we have the Core i7-3770K (which we'll be testing today

Expand | Collapse "Jesus asks us to take up our cross and follow Him, no exceptions," said David Bennett. "The question we each must answer is, 'To who or what am I going to die or suffer?'" "How do you respond to people in your church who have an unanswered prayer and are bearing a burden God has chosen not to remove?" This question was posed at a recent gathering of Christian leaders who had come together to hear insights on how to effectively engage modern culture and become agents of change in a hurting world. The question itself was raised in the context of how churches should navigate the issue of same-sex attraction. "Every single gay Christian has an enormous unanswered prayer," the speaker suggested. "They prayed for God to change them, and God didn't answer their prayer. So my question for you is, what do you do for people in your church who have an unanswered prayer?" In light of my interaction with believers who are searching for answers in difficult seasons of life, this question struck me as particularly significant. Even in the past year I have encountered many who are struggling under the weight of immense difficulties and unexpected heartache. A single mother who yearns to be married yet faces a lonely and uncertain trajectory. A committed couple dealing with the pain of infertility and failed adoption after praying for years that God would grant them a child. Missionaries in Europe who have served faithfully for decades and still see not a single convert to

"He always had guns on him," said one student. In fact, many at the school used to joke that Nikolas Cruz "would be the one to shoot up the school." This is Nikolas Cruz. He was a White Supremacist who frequently wore a MAGA hat. #GunReformNow ! pic.twitter.com/afoAQBWZAn -- Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) February 15, 2018 UPDATE #03: Was the man who shot and killed students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School a supporter of President Donald Trump? Many rumors abound about Nikolas Cruz, the man responsible for killing 17 individuals at a Parkland, Florida, high school this week. Like any event this tragic, some information that gets out lacks authenticity -- such as reports that he was part of a white supremacist paramilitary group in the northern part of the state. But one rumor that's circulating seems to have some truth to it. An image of Cruz wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat implies that he was a supporter of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and eventual presidency. Is the image authentic? This is Nikolas Cruz. He was a White Supremacist who frequently wore a MAGA hat. #GunReformNow ! pic.twitter.com/afoAQBWZAn -- Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) February 15, 2018 Some have made an argument claiming the image is fake , meant to dredge up hate against Trump supporters. Yet the photo, which was found on Instagram, is really Cruz, as the company confirmed while explaining why they were deleting his account. Instagram implicitly confirming that an account with a MAG

Sitaram Yechuri's 'Idea Of India' And Communalism By Badruddin Umar 30 November, 2015 Countercurrents.org A lecture by Sitaram Yechuri, General Secretary of CPI (Marxist), had been published in the Indian fortnightly 'Frontline' on 7th August, 2015. The lecture was delivered as "Chinta Ravi Memorial lecture in Kerala on 4th July, 2015. In this lecture, under the caption 'The Need for a New Agenda' he said the following on Indian politics in pre-independent India: The emergence of the conception of the idea of India arose from a continuous battle between three visions that emerged during the 1920s on the conception of the character of independent India. The mainstream Congress vision had articulated that independent India should be a secular democratic republic. The Left, while agreeing with this objective, went further to envision that the political freedom of the country must be extended to achieve the economic freedom of every individual, possibly only under socialism. Antagonistic to both these was the third vision, which argued that the character of independent India should be defined by the religious affiliation of its people. This vision had twin expressions- the Muslim League championing an "Islamic State" and the RSS [Rashtryiya Swayamsewak Sangh] championing a "Hindu Rashtra". The former succeeded in the unfortunate partition of the country with all its consequences that continue to fester tension till date. The latter having failed to achieve its objective at the ti

Recolonization Of India: Circle Is Closing Faster Through New-Education Policy Dictated By WTO-GATS! By Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle 29 November, 2015 Countercurrents.org Talk by Dr. ANIL SADGOPAL, Ret Professor, Delhi university, Member of the AIFRTE Presidium Date : 30-11-2015 @ 5:15 pm, Venue: CLT New Education Policy 2015 (NEP), which will be unleashed in Dec. 2015, is being drafted by the Government of India (GoI) on which opinions have been sought. In 1986, National Policy on Education was framed and amended in the wake of implementing neo-liberal policies in 1992. Now, NEP 2015 is a move of GoI towards the implementation of WTO-GATS [World Trade Organisation - General Agreement on Trade in Services] dictates before its ministerial meeting in Dec 2015.. While recolonializing our nation by implementing the WTO-GATS dictate, under that umbrella, Hindutva forces are planning to reestablish caste system and revive the brahminic hegemony. The composition of the 4 member NEP drafting committee itself is revealing in terms of what the government's agenda: three members are bureaucrats and only one is an academician - who is none other than RSS and hindutva ideologue Dinanath Batra! The implementation of LPG [Liberalization, Privatization, Globalization] policy and GATT [General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade], for the last twenty five years, has had grave consequences of massive destruction of agriculture, lakhs of farmer suicides, firing of millions of workers, government em

In a rare act of political intervention, former US First Lady Laura Bush rebuked the Trump administration for its "zero-tolerance" policy toward illegal migrants. Writing in The Washington Post on 17 June she condemned the policy as cruel and immoral. She added: "And it breaks my heart." Between 5 May and 9 June more than 2,300 children were forcibly separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border. Most of them were fleeing violence and oppression in countries allied with America, including El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Mrs Bush must be commended for her candour and decency. But, to the same degree that she and the majority of Americans - 58 per cent - have disapproved of the president's policy, they must also speak out against the torment that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip suffer at their border crossings. What they experience at their crossings with Egypt and Israel is no less cruel and immoral. It is shocking, disgraceful and inhumane. There are compelling reasons why the American people must stand up and be counted against the blockade and ill-treatment of Gaza's population. The countries that perpetrate this policy, Egypt and Israel, are the largest recipients of US economic and military aid not just in the Middle East but globally. The largesse which they receive does not come from The Trump Organisation - it comes from the hard-earned taxes paid by American voters. Unlike the crisis on the US-Mexican border which erupted under the current administration, t

May 03, 2017 Syria Summary - A New Russian Proposal And A Battle For The South Russia is extremely active in search of a diplomatic way forward in the Syria conflict. Last month talks were held in Russia with the Syrian foreign minister and the Iranian foreign minister. New plans were discussed and agreed upon. A few days ago Russia's foreign minister had talks with the U.S. Secretary of State. This week a visit of Merkel to Putin followed. On the same day Putin had a phone-call with Trump. A new round of the Astana piece talks under Russian sponsorship with the Syrian opposition and a Syrian government delegation is ongoing. (Unlike before the U.S. dispatched a high State Department official to this round.) Today Putin met with the Turkish president Erdogan. Russia is offering a proposal for "de-escalation zones ": According to the documents obtained by Sputnik, Russia proposed to set up four security zones -- in the Idlib province, to the north of the city of Homs, in Eastern Ghouta and in the south of the country. The rough draft offers: - de-escalation zones aimed to "put an immediate end to the violence" and "to provide conditions for safe, voluntary return of refugees" - security zones or buffers created around the de-escalation zones with checkpoints and monitoring centers manned by Syrian government troops and "rebels" - military units from unspecified "observer countries" could be deployed to these security zones - Turkey, Iran and Russia are named as as guarantors a

Among the second wave of Arab Spring uprisings that followed Tunisia, Syria was the most spectacular "out of the blue" that suddenly arose in the face of the media and analytic community. Just days before Deraa exploded with protests last March, some analysts were still scrutinizing Syria's circumstances and declaring the country to be immune from the Arab Spring. Nor did reporters who visited the country spot signs of a brewing storm. In fact, throughout the Arab Spring, the media and experts repeatedly fell into the same trap of confusing the capital city with the whole country. On the eve of the Islamist landslide in Egypt's elections various polls and informed individuals were putting the popularity of radical Salafis at between 5% and 10%. The Salafis have indeed won about 10% of the vote... but only in Cairo. Nationwide they took almost 30%, beating even those unrepentant pessimists who were betting on a Muslim Brotherhood spring. In some provinces they grabbed all of 50%. This routine of the periphery ambushing the media and analysts during the Arab Spring and making a mockery of their reports and predictions has reached such grotesque proportions in Syria partly thanks to the media restrictions imposed by the regime, but mostly owing to the very peripheral nature of the Syrian uprising itself. This "peripheralism" has also laid waste to the best efforts of Iranian advisers who came to Syria to share with their Syrian colleagues the know-how accumulated by the regime i

The notion that capitalism must inevitably decline and, by implication, that history is on our side, has been a dominant idea that has shaped much marxist and revolutionary thought, particularly that of Trotskyists and left communists. In the wake of the collapse of the Eastern Bloc it has become more important than ever to challenge such notions of capitalist decline and decadence. In the first part of our critique we examine the development of the various theories of capitalist decline that emerged out of the collapse of the Second International up until the end of the Second World War. A] Introduction We are subjects faced with the objective reality of capitalism. Capitalism appears as a world out of control - the denial of control over our lives. But it is also a world in crisis. How do we relate to this crisis? One understanding that has been dominant among critics of capitalism is that capitalist crisis, especially a prolonged and severe crisis such as we are presently in, is evidence that capitalism as an objective system is declining. The meaning of decline is either that it has created the basis of 'socialism' and/or that it is moving by its own contradictions towards a breakdown. Capitalism, it is said, is a world system that was mature in the Nineteenth Century, but has now entered its declining stage. In our view this theory of capitalist decline or of the decadence of capitalism hinders the project of abolishing that system. It might seem a bad time to critique t

Akalis Ruling Punjab Out To Regain Lost Ground With Use of Power By Jaspal Singh Sidhu 25 November, 2015 Countercurrents.org K nown as a regional force representing the Sikh minority till the 1980s, the 90-odd year old Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), now ruling Punjab in coalition with an unequal partner, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has, ironically, adopted an ultra-nationalistic posture to regain its lost ground. At the 23 November Bathinda SAD rally--- the first among the five ones scheduled in the state --- its president and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal announced that foreign forces from across the border, viz Pakistan, were "out to disturb the 'hard-earned peace and harmony' in Punjab . And the Congress Party joining hands with Sikh radicals out to create a 'Khalistan' (Sikh homeland) are a threat to the unity and integrity of India". The SAD leaders and workers have been suffering from some sort of social boycott in Punjab for more than a month as consequent to the Sikh protest against incidents of sacrilege of the scripture followed by police firing killing two protesters. The main opposition, the Congress, too, joined the protests with Rahul Gandhi coming down to Punjab, visiting the places of sacrilege and meeting the aggrieved families, expressing the party's solidarity with the Sikhs who had come on the roads and put the state government to a grinding halt. A majority of the Sikhs, already perturbed over the ruler's role in getting the Sikh religious b

Joe Carr Tuwani 4 November 2004 Children from Tuba go to school in Tuwani the "long way" on donkeys in order to avoid the settlement. What should take twenty minutes takes them nearly two hours each way. (Photo: CPT ) 31 October 2004 Today we arose at 6am to go watch the children come to school. After repeated stone throwing, shouting, and threats by settlers, the children are taking the long way. They ride donkeys for two hours on the mountains around the settlement and outpost. We station ourselves along their path at strategic places where we can see both the children and the settlement. We would have time to act if settlers come out of the trees, we plan to draw them away from the children, call an Israeli activist friend who can mobilize the army and police, and then attempt to get space between the settlers and the trees so that they are more likely to be caught. This isn't the best of plans, but every problem has a solution ( kul mushkilah ilhaa hal ), and this seems to be the best one for now. It is clear that the Israeli police and military are far more interested in getting us to leave than they are in apprehending the violent settlers. While watching the children go home the other day, two police jeeps (likely the Shin Bet Israeli secret service) drove over to us and videotaped a conversation in which they asked us what we were doing and suggested we try and save the world somewhere else. They also demanded we let them write down and photograph all of our passports

By Associated Press | February 22, 2016, 21:51 EDT Printed from: http://newbostonpost.com/2016/02/22/syria-cease-fire-agreement-reached-by-us-russia/ A Syrian national flag waves as vehicles move slowly in a traffic jam during rush hours on a road in Damascus , Syria, Sunday. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar) DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- The United States and Russia have agreed on a new cease-fire for Syria that will take effect Saturday, even as major questions over enforcing and responding to violations of the truce were left unresolved. Syria's warring government and rebels still need to accept the deal. The timeline for a hoped-for breakthrough comes after the former Cold War foes, backing opposing sides in the conflict, said they finalized the details of a "cessation of hostilities" between President Bashar Assad's government and armed opposition groups after five years of violence that has killed more than 250,000 people. The truce will not cover the Islamic State group, the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and any other militias designated as terrorist organizations by the U.N. Security Council. But where in Syria the fighting must stop and where counterterrorism operations can continue must still be addressed. And the five-page plan released by the U.S. State Department leaves open how breaches of the cease-fire will be identified or punished. The announcement came after Presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone Monday, capping weeks of intense diplomacy to stem the v

When considering movie scores, we felt it prudent to welcome Erik Woods of the Cinematic Sound Radio show/podcast to help us cast a wider net. Woods gave us the perspective we needed: He openly admitted that many of the scores he listened to most over the course of 2016 were to films he hadn't seen, or were scores he loved long before seeing the movies that birthed them. Which presents its own share of critical quandaries: Divorced from their visual sides, and from their whole reason to exist at all, can scores be appreciated on their own? Should they? This list answers that question with a shrug. Regardless, Woods introduced us to scores we would have never considered ( Nerve and Pete's Dragon ) that have become favorites, scores he discovered apart from their films. He also recommends the scores to Gods of Egypt (Marcos Beltrami), Tale of a Lake (Panu Aaltio) and Michael Giacchino's Rogue One . While we're at it: In addition to his picks below, Kenji dug Carter Logan's Paterson OST, and Michael Montes's work for Always Shine . And Dom really liked Cho Young-wuk's The Handmaiden score, as well what Bobby Johnston composed for City of Gold . So, if we're going to agree on anything, here they are, our picks for the best scores of 2016: 15. Assassin's Creed Composer: Jed Kurzel Justin Kurzel's big-screen adaptation of the popular game series may play like little more than a self-serious, two-hour prelude to a new franchise--one that most likely won't get off the ground if its b

The Western media, for whom Arab autocrats usually have as much appeal as agriculture subsidies, are gaga over the Arab Brat Pack. The dashing royals who inherited power last year--38-year-old King Abdullah of Jordan and 36-year-old King Mohammed of Morocco--were joined this week by 34-year-old Bashar Assad, who's taking his father's job in Syria. The Brat Packers are Western-educated, adore the free market, surf the Web, and seem more interested in joint ventures with Israel than attacks on it. Bahrain and Qatar also have new reform-minded emirs, and young bucks are clamoring to run Egypt, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia when the current generation of old-timers kicks. It's easy to understand why the Brat Packers delight the West. Americans are accustomed to surly Arab leaders in headscarves and uniforms. But King Abdullah prepped at Deerfield, studied at Georgetown, and speaks English better than Arabic. He's married to a foxy young woman who worked for Apple Computer. He aced his recent appearance on Larry King Live . He watches Dharma & Greg . He eats at Planet Hollywood. He's a Trekkie (boldly going where no king has gone before). Mohammed, unlike his father King Hassan, mingles with ordinary Moroccans, drives his own car, and lives in a modest suburban house. Dr. Bashar, the ophthalmologist, is an Internet junkie who loves Phil Collins. The Brat Pack is appealing in substance as well. The Arab leaders of the '50s and '60s preached Pan-Arabism and socialism and obsessed about d

Abdelatif Khader has a bare, sunlit office in this West Bank village, and on the wall is one map: the projected route of what Israelis call their "security barrier" around Palestinian territory. Palestinians have a different name for it -- the "apartheid wall" -- and Khader is the coordinator of the Palestinian campaign to stop the wall in the sector around the city of Qalqilya. Today, this village has become the front line in the fight. "Did you hear that Condi Rice used the term 'apartheid wall' with a group of Jewish lobbyists?" a foreign aide in one of the PLO's legal departments crows to Khader. A glum looking middle-aged man wearing a photographer's jacket with pockets, Khader smiles politely at the aide's exclamation. "That is exactly what we need," he says. It's doubtful that Condoleezza Rice, the national security advisor to President Bush, actually made the remark; no confirmation can be found anywhere. But the Palestinians have correctly gauged that something has shifted in the Bush administration's attitude toward the barrier. In talks at the White House with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, Bush said Friday that the wall is "a problem" that he will discuss with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during the Israeli leader's upcoming visit to Washington. "It is very difficult to develop confidence between the Palestinians and Israel with a wall snaking though the West Bank," said the president. The Israelis have already acknowledged that Rice, during her visit to

The regression results indicate that informed consent laws and partial birth abortion bans have considerably less impact than the other types of pro-life legislation. These results are expected. In most cases, minors seek abortions because they do not want to reveal their pregnancy or sexual activity to their parents. It is likely, therefore, that presenting a minor with alternatives to abortion would have little influence on her decision. Similarly, since many minors seek abortions relatively early in their pregnancies, a technique other than partial birth abortion would be used in most cases involving minors. Potential Endogeneity Problems The results indicate that the passage of certain state pro-life legislation is associated with declines in abortion rates. However, the question remains whether or not the legislation in fact caused these declines. The enactment of pro-life legislation is not a random occurrence. Indeed, states that are passing this type of legislation could be states where values are becoming more religious or conservative. As a result, these shifts in values, not the legislation itself, may be causing the declines in the incidence of abortion. Resolving these sorts of endogeneity problems is often a difficult issue for social scientists. Unlike researchers in the hard sciences, social scientists cannot, generally speaking, test their theories through experimentation. Instead, they must observe social phenomena and make the best inferences that they can.

The city had been split during the Arab siege of the capital in 1948 and it remained cut in half by an ugly wall as well as by dangerous no-man's-land zones. The victory in the Six-Day War ended an illegal occupation of the eastern portion of the city as well as the walled Old City by Jordan that had lasted for 19 years but was not recognized by the world. In breaking down the barriers, the Israelis not only reunited the city but opened access to its religious shrinesincluding the Western Wall and the Temple Mountwhich had been off limits for Jews during the Jordanian occupation. But as Israelis celebrated what is known as "Jerusalem Day", support for the push to reinstate the division of the city in the international community has grown. Every Middle East peace plan proposed in the last 15 years, including the three Israeli offers of statehood that the Palestinians turned down, included a new partition of Jerusalem even though both sides remain murky about how that could be accomplished without reinstating the warlike atmosphere that prevailed before June 1967. But for those who believe that such a partition is essential to peace, the process by which a city that has grown exponentially in the last five decades, with Jews and Arabs no longer neatly divided by a wall, could be split is merely a matter of details. To fill in the blanks for its readers, Haaretz published a Jerusalem Day feature that provided the answer to the question. Highlighting a complicated scheme put forw

Shopkeepers in Shatila say they have been unable to bring in fresh supplies of food since Israeli air strikes began targeting the south of Beirut on 12 July. ( Hugh Macleod/ IRIN ) BEIRUT -- From the roof of his crumbling house, Mahmoud Kallam has a clear view across the slums of south Beirut where Palestinian children play football in streets lined with rotting bones and discarded clothes. As he looks, columns of brown smoke from Israeli air strikes rise into the sky. "My children are asleep now because they spent all night watching the missile attacks. They have started playing a game of who can spot the drone first," says Kallam, a Palestinian researcher and life-long resident of the Shatila Camp. Shatila is one of dozens of camps where over half Lebanon's estimated 400,000 Palestinian refugees live in squalid, cramped conditions. The camps are fully built up with concrete buildings and infrastructure, albeit in a deteriorating state. Shopkeepers in Shatila say they have been unable to bring in fresh supplies of food since Israeli air strikes began targeting suspected Hizbullah strongholds in the south of Beirut, on 12 July. Most of the bakeries that supplied bread to the camp have closed since the conflict started. "Ninety percent of our goods came from the southern suburbs," says refugee Khaled Yousef, sitting in his small store in the labyrinthine streets of Shatila. "Many women and children have left the camp and now I'm just selling what I have left." Behind him, shel

Violence / Detentions -- West Bank / Jerusalem Shooting attack at illegal settlement leaves Palestinian, 3 Israelis dead BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) 26 Sept -- Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian on Tuesday morning after the 37-year-old carried out a shooting attack at the entrance of the illegal Israeli settlement of Har Adar in the occupied West Bank, killing two security guards and a border police officer. According to Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld, the attack was carried out by a Palestinian from the village of Beit Surik in the West Bank's Jerusalem district, later identified as Nimr Mahmoud Ahmed Jamal. Luba al-Samri, the Arabic spokesperson for the Israeli police, added that Jamal had arrived at the settlement along with a group of Palestinian workers. When Palestinians began entering the Israeli checkpoint at the entrance of the settlement, Israeli police forces asked him to stop after becoming suspicious of the Palestinian, who then exposed a gun and shot at the officers. After an exchange of fire, Jamal was shot dead, while three of the officers were killed. Another Israeli, the security coordinator of the settlement, was also seriously injured at the time. Rosenfeld confirmed that the slain Palestinian was a holder of an Israeli work permit. Al-Samri noted that the Israeli officer killed was 20-year-old Soloman Gabariya. Israeli police closed off the area near the settlement following the attack. Israeli daily Haaretz identified the two security guards as Yu

Satellite image of the Rafah border in December 2003 after Israeli forces demolished numerous homes in Rafah refugee camp. ( Space Imaging ) Rafah Terminal, located on the Egyptian/Gaza Strip border, has been closed by the Israel Defense Forces ( IDF ) since 12 December 2004. This closure came in the immediate aftermath of an attack in the terminal area by Palestinian militants that killed five Israeli soldiers and injured five. Since then, there have been additional militant attacks in the Gaza Strip1. The IDF has also carried out a number of military operations in the territory2. The IDF has stated that building work continues on the terminal, which was extensively damaged during the 12 December attack, and it will not reopen for at least another six weeks. The terminal is effectively the only access point for Gaza Strip residents to areas outside the Gaza Strip. It has now been closed for 39 consecutive days, by far the longest period of uninterrupted closure in the last four years of the Intifada. Between 18 July and 5 August 2004, Rafah Terminal was closed for 19 consecutive days. This closure attracted widespread international attention because of the deteriorating humanitarian situation faced by as many as 2,500 people stuck south of the border. While the number of Palestinians waiting at the southern side of the terminal is now not more than 30, the restrictions placed on the terminal detrimentally affect a far greater number. Rafah Terminal is the only exit and entry

Underscoring that the approval of the proposed presidential system in the upcoming referendum will give impetus to achieve projected levels of development, Science, Industry and Technology Minister Faruk Ozlu said this system will also help Turkey escape the middle class trap. He touched on the domestic automobile project undertaken by the ministry, affirming that the first model of a domestic electric car, expected to be mass-produced by 2019, will be used as taxis. Moreover, indicating that they have regulated R&D support to render it more efficient and that this support will be distributed from a singular center, Ozlu added they have established a platform consisting of leading business people and industrialists to helm Turkey's transformation, which is essential to catch up to the fourth industrial revolution. Daily Sabah: How will transitioning to a presidential system affect Turkey's industrial and technological policies, and in what ways will it contribute to Turkey's development? Can you please explain? Faruk Ozlu: Turkey reached upper-middle income levels from middle income after 2002 by transitioning from low-tech production to medium tech. In this context, balancing the distribution of industrial investments to the region, accelerating the development of the manufacturing industry, increasing the production and export of hi-tech products, which have high level added-value, are important to escape the middle class trap and transform Turkey's economy into a high inco

Israel temporarily cancels family-prisoner visits GAZA CITY (Ma'an) 30 July -- Israeli authorities have announced temporary cancellation of all family visits from Gaza to Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons that were scheduled for Monday until further notice. Abd al-Nasser Farawneh, Head of the Prisoners' Affairs Committee in the Gaza Strip, said that Israeli authorities informed the Ministry of Detainees regarding the cancellation of all family visits of Gaza prisoners scheduled for Monday due to urgent technical reasons. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is in charge of coordinating with Israeli authorities to arrange family visitations for Palestinian prisoners and eases visitations for Gaza residents on a regular basis ... According to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, Palestinians are entitled to family visits, which can "only be limited for security reasons, on a case by case basis, but never for strictly punitive or disciplinary purposes." http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=780541 Israeli missiles kill two Palestinians in Gaza IMEMC 29 July -- The Palestinian Health Ministry has confirmed that Israeli soldiers killed, on Sunday at dawn , two young Palestinian men, in northern Gaza. It said the two Palestinians were killed by Israeli missiles fired from aircraft, east of Jabalia , in northern Gaza. The two slain Palestinians have been identified as ii Ayman Nafeth Rabea' Najjar , 24, and Mohannad Majed Jamal Hammouda , 24, from Beit

Israeli Soldiers scuffle with Palestinian worshipers trying to pass the checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem in order to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque for the second Friday of the holy month of Ramadan, 6 October 2006. ( MaanImages /Magnus Johansson) Normally, the holy month of Ramadan is a festive season of heightened spirituality and good will. It is also an occasion where family members share the usually exquisite Iftar meals immediately after sunset at the end of the day-long fast. However, for many Palestinian families, hard-hit by extremely harsh Israeli-western sanctions, this Ramadan has the smell of real penury. Abject poverty is also becoming increasingly apparent among the traditionally weak sectors of society, such as day-laborers. Yousuf M. Suleiman is a school teacher of 30 years from the southern West Bank town of Hebron. He has a family of eight but can hardly get things "under control" when it comes to securing the basic needs such as flour, sugar and rice. "I really don't know what to tell you. Would you believe me if I told you that last week we didn't have bread for three days?" said Suleiman, with a clearly subdued voice. Suleiman, like the rest of the estimated 170,000 Palestinian public employees and civil servants, has not received his salary for the seventh consecutive month due to the economic blockade imposed by Israel, the US and EU on the Hamas-led government. The government has paid "advance payments" amounting to 50-60 percent of the regular

Palestinian man walking in the streets of Nablus, followed by an Israeli tank (Nasser Ishtayeh) A new report by Oxfam International today calls for the protection of Israeli and Palestinian civilians to be put at the top of the international agenda. The report calls for the Government of Israel, the Palestinian National Authority and the international community, through the Quartet ( EU , Russia, UN , US ) to act urgently to reduce the impact of conflict on Palestinians and Israeli civilians. The international community has a legal obligation to ensure respect for international humanitarian law. According to the Oxfam research, the humanitarian situation has become critical and it is civilians on both sides who are suffering most. The report calls for the Quartet to convene an emergency meeting of all parties to consider possible new ways that the international community can step up its involvement, including: The deployment of a strong protection or observation force for civilians; an international force to work as a verification and implementation mission; a mechanism for settling disputes; A UN mandated international peacekeeping force. It also calls for an end to the culture of impunity - with those who commit inhuman and criminal acts being brought to justice, and for the Government of Israel to stop the construction of the separation barrier because of its devastating effect on Palestinian civilians. Oxfam director Barbara Stocking says: "Recent events in Gaza constitut

The Union government has proposed certain changes to India's citizenship laws, in the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016. The present legal framework has no provision for religion-based citizenship and the proposed amendment plans to change that. At present, an illegal migrant entering the territory of the Indian Union is prohibited from becoming a citizen. The amendment proposes that illegal migrants belonging to six specific religious minority communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan will not be prohibited from attaining citizenship, even if they migrated to the territory illegally. The move, to mark out illegal migrants of specific religious minorities originating from neighbouring sovereign territories for special treatment, started a little while back. In a series of orders between September 2015 and July 2016, the government exempted from deportation the illegal migrants belonging to the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian religion. These previous moves laid down the framework for the present proposed amendment. The BJP has now proposed an amendment to offer Indian citizenship to a section of migrants based on their religion. Reuters Illegal migrants from these countries belong to all religions. However, the reasons of illegal migration are not similar across all religions. Having said that, the reasons are also not similar across all adherents of a particular religion. The elephant in the room is that Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh are Mu

Thousands of Palestinians taking part in the Great March of Return. (Photo: ActiveStills.org) A post shared by Eye On Palestine (@eye.on.palestine) on Apr 5, 2018 at 2:48am PDT Red Crescent paramedics also found the body of a Palestinian man killed by a missile fired by an Israeli drone, to the east of Gaza City. The body has not been identified yet, because of the damage caused by the explosion. A post shared by The IMEU (@theimeu) on Apr 5, 2018 at 5:39am PDT This raises the toll of Palestinians killed in Gaza since Friday to 20. Israeli forces shut down Palestine Technical University, in the occupied West Bank. (Photo: via Facebook) Palestine Technical University has been repeatedly attacked by the Israeli Army in the past. By Human Rights Watch Senior Israeli officials who unlawfully called for use of live ammunition against Palestinian demonstrations who posed no imminent threat to life bear responsibility for the killings of 14 demonstrators in Gaza and the injuring of hundreds on March 30, 2018, Human Rights Watch said today Both before and after the confrontations, senior officials publicly said that soldiers stationed along the barrier that separates Gaza and Israel had orders to target "instigators" and those who approach the border. However, the Israeli government presented no evidence that rock-throwing and other violence by some demonstrators seriously threatened Israeli soldiers across the border fence. The high number of deaths and injuries was the foreseeable

On a visit to Jagdalpur in India, DILNAZ BOGA discovered how differently the laws in this conflict region are applied to tribal people. My visit to the neatly tucked away Jagdalpur town in Bastar district of the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh last May was unplanned. After spending a few hours on a sleeper bus, I finally arrived at my destination without an agenda. My aim was to familiarise myself with different issues that the people were dealing with in the region. I had several questions on my mind. For example, the average irrigated land in the state of Chhattisgarh was 20% and water was being diverted to power plants. What was the impact on the people there? I had seen horrific stories in north Chhattisgarh almost a decade ago. Wonder how the southern part of the state had been coping, I thought to myself. In Bastar, (south Chhattisgarh) what was the impact of the security forces whose ratio was 1,170 per 100,000 civilians? What was happening to the local journalists who were covering these difficult issues? If the state had its way in Chhattisgarh, what would happen to the 33% of India's land that was covered by forests? Would the forests and its people pay the ultimate price for the country's "development goals" and its pride, its GDP? A friend's friend worked there and so I decided to explore the area. After meeting the amazing lawyers, Shalini Ghera, Guneet Kaur and Isha Khandelwal, who formed Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group (JagLag), I decided to just go with the flo

Imran Khan promises to be different from his predecessors if chosen to lead, but his ability to govern and his party's achievements in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region are contested. Yet he's confident about winning the upcoming national elections. Imran Khan's support base largely comprise internet-savvy urban youth - an advantage in a country where almost two-thirds of the population is under-25 ( AP ) Imran Khan is back in drawing-room conversations in Pakistan again. He has started to sound like a broken record, which reminds me of the summer of 2012, when my father and I watched him on TV addressing a massive gathering of his supporters in Lahore. I remember my father casting doubt on Khan's political standing, even though some of the country's major newspapers and TV channels bought Khan's portrayal of himself as a leader who wanted to make Pakistan a corruption-free country. A former first-class cricketer, who played for the Pakistani cricket team until 1992, he was the team captain when it won a World Cup victory the same year, 65-year-old Khan has been a national phenomenon for most of his youth. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the Oxford graduate was not only a tabloid celebrity but also a symbol of optimism for a country embroiled in several military coups and political assassinations. A decade and a half later, he again presented himself as an indispensable public figure, addressing massive political rallies prior to national elections in 2013. I saw my cohorts in the

In Judea and Samaria, from 1994 through 2000, the army closed its eyes to the Palestinian security forces' open, warm and mutually supportive ties to terror groups. The military only began to reconsider its assessment of the US- and European-trained and Israeli-armed Palestinian forces after Border Police Cpl. Mahdat Youssef bled to death at Joseph's Tomb in October 2000. Youssef died because the Palestinian security chiefs on whom Israel had relied for cooperation refused to coordinate the evacuation of the wounded policeman. Youssef was wounded when a Palestinian mob, supported by Palestinian security forces, attacked the sacred Jewish shrine. They shot at worshipers and the IDF soldiers who were stationed at Joseph's Tomb in accordance with the agreements Israel has signed with the Palestinians. In Lebanon, the IDF only reconsidered its policy of ignoring Hezbollah's massive arms build-up in the south after the Shi'ite group launched its war against Israel in July 2006. In Gaza, the IDF only reconsidered its willingness to allow Hamas to massively arm itself with missiles and rockets after the terror group running the Strip massively escalated the scale of its missile war against Israel in December 2008. It is to be hoped that Thursday's sophisticated, deadly, multi-pronged, combined arms assault by as yet unidentified enemy forces along the border with Egypt will suffice to force the IDF to alter its view of Egypt. By Thursday afternoon, seven Israelis had been killed and

Michael Walzer For many years there have been a number of prominent American Jewish public figures, academicians, or organizational leaders who have essentially functioned as propagandists for Israeli policy in its conflict with the Palestinians: the names that immediately come to mind are Abe Foxman, Marty Peretz, and Alan Dershowitz. However, sensible people who lack expertise in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but who are increasingly uneasy about Israel's policies and behavior are likely to discount those hasbarists and their like. For two reasons, however, that is not the case when it comes to Michael Walzer. First, by almost universal acclaim, he is the preeminent just war moral philosopher of the last half-century, a scholar and teacher at Princeton, Harvard, and for over thirty years a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies, perhaps America's most distinguished and prestigious academic institution, whose members have included such intellectual and moral giants as Albert Einstein and George Kennan. Secondly, Walzer's extensive writings on the Arab-Israel conflict are by no means uncritical of Israeli policies, particularly, the settlements, the occupation, and the Israeli refusal to accept a two-state political settlement. Consequently, Walzer has far more credibility than the propagandists-except, that is, for specialists on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict who have become increasingly alarmed by Walzer's analytical and moral failings when it comes to that iss

Laila El-Haddad Al Jazeera 6 August 2005 Mohammad Samhouri In less than two weeks, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will begin the evacuation of 21 illegal settlements from the Gaza Strip, built during Israel's occupation of the impoverished territory since 1967. What follows that process for the Palestinians is less clear. The fate of Gaza's border areas - the Rafah crossing, the sea ports and airport, and the industrial terminals at Karni and Erez - is still under discussion. The Palestinian economy is in peril. The World Bank recently warned that disengagement would not lead to economic recovery unless the Israeli closure of the area was lifted. In the face of all this, Mohammad Samhouri has been assigned the task of coordinating the withdrawal on the Palestinian side. Samhouri, a US -educated economist by training, oversees a team of 40 experts who are handling the post-disengagement process, including what's to be done with the evacuated land and remaining assets. Aljazeera.net spoke to Samhouri in his Gaza office about the disengagement that is set to start on 15 August, the importance of free access for Palestinians and the future of Palestinian economy. Mohammad Samhouri : Before we begin, I just want to give you some advice to make your job easier. Don't ask me political questions, because I don't have political answers. Aljazeera.net : Noted. What exactly are you tasked with doing? I am the general coordinator of the Technical Committee Following Disengagement. I

'I guess that means we've had it then,' I reply, and I try to laugh so that she realizes this is an attempt to lighten the mood, but the laugh comes out dry and hoarse and I can hear the wobble in my voice as I say the words. I'm annoyed at myself, and I want to tell her - a feisty, young, beautiful-looking Palestinian - that I'm not really the pathetic, anxious individual I'm currently coming across as. But I've been in this holding pen alone for three-and-a-half hours, without food or water, and have, already, in that period of time, been hauled out five times for interrogating (the first couple of times, I'd describe it as questioning; after that, it became worse) by four different people. On top of that, I came in on a night flight, landing at 6am on Sunday, so I haven't slept since Friday night, and I'd find that upsetting at the best of times. In this situation, the lack of sleep has led me to make some appalling slip ups during the questionings. Amena Saleem Sumaya and I are being held at Tel Aviv airport, Israel. She's just come in on a flight from New York, with the aim of making it to Ramallah to edit a newsletter being started by Palestinian friends. Originally from Gaza, she knows she has no chance of being allowed in to that brutally-punished strip of land, even though her family lives there, so instead she comes to the West Bank to do her bit against the occupation. This time, she tells me, she has no intention of leaving. Thinking only of my stomach, I ask her

In a statement to Western media outlets, President al-Assad said that the priority of the Syrian people now is to fight terrorism, adding "it's a luxury now to talk about politics while you're going to be killed maybe in a few minutes, you have terrorist attacks. So, this is the priority, getting rid of the extremists, the political reconciliation in the different areas, this is another priority. When you achieve these two, you can talk about every discussion you want to regarding any issue." Following is the full text of the statement: Mr. President, yesterday [Sunday] in Damascus, another attack. The situation in Syria is still dangerous. Then, what do you think about the word of Netanyahu about the role of Iran here in Syria, and if you have your opinion about Donald Trump? You're talking about different aspects of the problem, which is very complicated because of the external intervention. When you talk about the terrorists in Syria, terrorist attacks like what happened yesterday [Sunday] in Damascus, that's been happening maybe on daily basis, if not hourly basis in some cases. As long as you have terrorists anywhere in Syria, every Syrian citizen is in danger, this is for sure. The question here: who supports those terrorists? And that's what I would like to raise as a question for the European officials that went in the wrong way since the beginning of the crisis in Syria and led to the destruction of Syria and prevailing of terrorism in the region, that led to terrori

It is incredible watching the media celebrate the ostensible rise of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Asaduddin Owaisi. Every third day he peers out from newspapers and TV channels, lambasting the secular parties for their failings and declaring his ambition of forging a social alliance between Muslims and Dalits. This is an amazing turnaround for the man who, only months ago, was dismissed as a hothead prone to making provocative speeches. No doubt, the Maharashtra assembly election results have underscored Owaisi's significance. His party won two seats, came second on three, and bagged 0.9 percent of the votes polled even though it contested in only 24 assembly constituencies. The AIMIM's isn't the most astonishing debut performance in India's electoral history, and pales in comparison to, say, the Aam Aadmi Party's success of last year. Yet the media is making a beeline to Owaisi because of its perception about his capacity to destruct in the electoral arena. The Owaisi's have been less than honest about the origins and agenda of MIM: AFP The media knows the AIMIM can't possibly ride the Muslim support to power. But it can split the Muslim support of some parties to the advantage of the BJP, which doesn't depend on religious minorities for its electoral performance. This is why the AIMIM's decision to field candidates in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal has produced a frisson, and though Owaisi hasn't yet spoken about his plans in Delhi, do not be surpris

Friday, Jun 17, 2011, 8:29 am Palestinians Link Global and Local in Israel Boycott Campaign BY Michelle Chen Email this article to a friend A Palestinian construction worker takes a break to pray at an Israeli settlement site. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images) In an era of globalization, countries are more linked through economic ties than by international law. So when one government decides to violate human rights with impunity, sometimes the best way for the world to respond is by taking its business elsewhere. That is why the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign (BDS) has proven to be one of the most effective mobilization tools in the international movement against the Israeli occupation. From inside Israel and Palestine, however, the movement has complex ripple effects. People living under occupation face unique obstacles when leveraging the instruments of capitalism for political emancipation. The main components of BDS involve consumer boycotts of Israeli products; the breaking of ties between educational and cultural institutions and Israeli counterparts, and ultimately, sanctions by governments in order to isolate Israel in the international arena. Though the movement has an international scope, it originated with Palestinian civil society groups and is today coordinated by a Palestinian-led BDS National Committee . But how do Palestinians themselves mobilize against an economic system that they are a part of? As consumers and business owners, Palestinians may have

Confined Cruelty: Israeli Treatment of Palestinian Minors F or many Palestinian children their childhood is lived under a cloak of fear and the threat of violence and abuse at the hands of an armed force that stalks the streets of their homeland. They shoot children, don't they? In the 11 years since the year 2000, Israeli forces have killed 1,471 children in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the bulk of whom were aged between 13 and 17 years. The children of Gaza have been and continue to be at greatest risk, with almost a thousand murdered in the last 12 years. Most are shot randomly and indiscriminately, or killed as a result of Israeli air and ground attacks. Around 50 were taken prematurely from their families by unexploded ordnance. The most recent atrocities against the people of Gaza began on Friday 9 March and resulted in the killing of 25 Palestinians, and come on the back of the massacre that took place in December 2008/January 2009, when a total of 1,417 Palestinians were murdered, of whom 318 were children and 116 women. Fresh in the children's young memories lie the echo of that horrendous time, the constant bombardment, the loss of loved ones and the shootings. Besides the deaths, around 1,000 children were injured in the three-week assault, and many children were left with severe physical disabilities and deep psychological wounds. The mental and emotional effects are more difficult to see and/or to treat than broken bones and scared flesh. The Gaza Community Heal

It is important to recall, with the current lack of coverage, that the siege on Gaza continues full steam ahead, leaving Palestinians in Gaza (and analysts, human rights organizations, and the casual observer) to say that it is now as bad as it was in 2007. As much potential, culture, and knowledge as Palestinians have, they are forever being forced backwards, grateful for whatever stop-gap for whatever crisis is at the time inflicted upon them. In these times of rolling power outages, fuel and cooking gas crises, medicines and equipment shortages ("zero stock"), inventions and innovations to get around the lack of fuel or deal with no electricity are prized. But shouldn't Palestinians be allowed just a little more than the reward of figuring out the latest way to cook without gas, electricity or wood, or how to get to university and work without public transport. Perhaps in addition to these small rewards they might also get a vestige of justice, equality, freedom of movement, and the ability to produce and export and provide for their families. I spoke with three Palestinians in their early to mid twenties on what is life like now in Gaza. On life under siege Awni Farhat: I am sick of the current situation in Gaza. It is suffocating me. Living in Gaza under siege is unbearable. Palestinians have suffered for many years but no one listens: the continued closure of the Rafah border, the fuel crisis, the lack of basic human needs, the ongoing power cuts, the lack of clean wate

The St. Gabriel Assyrian Monastery, founded in 397 A.D., in Midyat, Turkey. Despite the world-wide recognition of the status of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew as the spiritual leader of all Orthodox Christians, the government of Turkey will give no legal standing and status to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the historical Holy Center of Orthodox Christianity at the Phanar, in Istanbul. The lack of legal standing and status in essence nullifies property and other fundamental civil rights in Turkey for the Ecumenical Patriarchate which precludes its full exercise of religious freedom. The Ecumenical Patriarchate cannot own in its name the churches to serve the faithful or the cemeteries to provide for their repose. Since it lacks a legal standing, the Ecumenical Patriarchate is powerless to pursue legal remedies to assert property rights or even seek to repair deteriorating property without government approval. Instead and in lieu of legal standing, Turkey has established a system of minority (community) foundations for Orthodox Christians and other non-Muslim religious minorities to hold properties supervised and controlled by the Turkish government's General Directorate of Foundations. The Directorate regulates all the activities of religious community foundations which include approximately 75 Greek Orthodox, 42 Armenian and 19 Jewish foundations. The 1935 Law on Religious Foundations, and a subsequent 1936 Decree, required all foundations, Muslim or non-Mus

An Israeli soldier prevents Palestinians from passing Beit Iba checkpoint, during a demonstration against Israeli checkpoints near the West Bank city of Nablus, 14 February 2007. ( MaanImages /Rami Swidan) The scene: a military checkpoint deep in Palestinian territory in the West Bank. A tall, thin elderly man, walking stick in hand, makes a detour past the line of Palestinians, many of them young men, waiting obediently behind concrete barriers for permission from an Israeli soldier to leave one Palestinian area, the city of Nablus, to enter another Palestinian area, the neighbouring village of Huwara. The long queue is moving slowly, the soldier taking his time to check each person's papers. The old man heads off purposefully down a parallel but empty lane reserved for vehicle inspections. A young soldier controlling the human traffic spots him and orders him back in line. The old man stops, fixes the soldier with a stare and refuses. The soldier looks startled, and uncomfortable at the unexpected show of defiance. He tells the old man more gently to go back to the queue. The old man stands his ground. After a few tense moments, the soldier relents and the old man passes. Is the confrontation revealing of the soldier's humanity? That is not the way it looks -- or feels -- to the young Palestinians penned in behind the concrete barriers. They can only watch the scene in silence. None would dare to address the soldier in the manner the old man did -- or take his side had the

Yousef M. Aljamal of Gaza's Center for Political Development Studies interviews with Huwaida Arraf, cofounder of the International Solidarity Movement: Aljamal: First, could you please give us a brief introduction about ISM? Huwaida Arraf with kids in Khan Younis. Arraf: The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land using nonviolent, direct-action methods and principles. We founded this international coalition to support and strengthen the Palestinian popular resistance by providing the Palestinian people with a resource -- international protection and a voice -- with which to resist, nonviolently, an overwhelming military occupation force. The resources the Israeli government has at its disposal are well-known - over $3 billion in military aid from the U.S., hundreds of millions of dollars in private funds, and the unquestioned diplomatic support of the only superpower in the world exercised through its veto in the UN Security Council of any resolution that would compel Israel to abide by international law. The Palestinians also need strong resources. We focus on providing support for the Palestinian unarmed resistance, not because we take a hostile view to the armed resistance, but rather because we believe that unarmed resistance is strategically more advantageous to Palestinians. Seeing as Israel is superior to us militarily, it's better not to fight them in that arena, but rathe

Donald Trump and Senator Ted Cruz at the Republican presidential primary debate at the University of Houston. (AP Photo / David J. Phillip) Ready to join the resistance? Sign up for Take Action Now and we'll send you three actions every Tuesday. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation's journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation , check out our latest issue . Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. Fight Back! Sign up for Take Action Now and we'll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation's journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation , check out our latest issue . Travel With The Nation Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine? It was fitting that Thursday night's Republican presidential debate opened with a harsh exchange over immigration. The debate, hosted by CNN and Telemundo, was the RNC's only sanctioned debate to air on a Spanish-language network. Immigration is the issue that has defined Donald Trump's candidacy and the issue

Listen to the interview here (mp3) Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi are co-editors of a new book of essays, Love, InshAllah: The Secret Loves of American Muslim Women. Ayesha is a writer and an international development consultant who is writing a memoir about faith and love. Nura is a civil rights attorney who is working on short stories and a screenplay. The authors talk with Sally Steenland about the uniqueness and universality in the search for love among American Muslim women. Sally Steenland: Let's get right to the book. You open with two opposing stereotypes of American Muslim women. One stereotype is that Muslim women are oppressed and submissive, forced into arranged marriages. The other stereotype is that they're hiding bombs under their clothes. The essays in your book completely shatter these stereotypes. What is the most surprising thing that people will learn about American Muslim women from your book? Nura Maznavi: I think the most surprising thing for our readers, and it was surprising to the two of us, was how incredibly diverse the voices in the book are. There are Muslim women from every ethnicity, race, and background, of different ages and who live across the country. There are orthodox Muslims, cultural Muslims, secular Muslims. All of those voices are in the book. Ayesha Mattu: Not only were they from very different backgrounds, each had a very unique search for love. SS: What do American Muslim women have to say about the search for love? AM: We sent out

As we write these lines the Papandreou government is staggering towards collapse. In a matter of days the whole situation has been thrown into turmoil. Only last week, eurozone leaders were congratulating each other on agreeing a 100bn-euro loan to Athens and a 50% write-off of its mountain of debt. Governments cheered. Stock exchanges rose on the announcement of the deal. And politicians breathed a sigh of relief. A few days later and everything turned into its opposite. The Greek deal was rapidly unravelling. Markets were tumbling. Governments were cursing. And politicians were predicting imminent disaster for the euro. One week ago President Sarkozy had thought he would be presenting to the world a done deal for the Eurozone rescue and asking the Chinese for a big injection of cash. Instead, Papandreou's move left both him and German Chancellor Angela Merkel shocked and appalled. The summit of the G-20 leaders was thrown into confusion before it even opened. What has happened to produce such a violent transformation? The immediate cause was the announcement by George Papandreou of his intention to put the issue to a referendum. In return for their "kindness" the European leaders reiterated their demands that Greece must make deep cuts in public spending, slashing pensions and wages and making thousands of civil servants redundant. The announcement of a referendum fell like a bombshell in Paris and Berlin. Merkel and Sarkozy were beside themselves with rage. The French Pres

Fracking Goes On Trial For Human Rights Violations By Kathleen Dean Moore, www.truth-out.org November 16, 2015 Fracking Goes On Trial For Human Rights Violations 2015-11-16 2015-11-16 https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.png PopularResistance.Org https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2015/11/Screen-Shot-2015-11-16-at-11.24.10-AM-e1447691315716-150x95.png 200px 200px Above Photo: A fracking site at Lake Mohawk, Ohio. Chiot's Run / Flickr . As convoys of heavy trucks carry fracking equipment into new oil fields in neighborhoods and wildlands around the world, an alliance of human rights organizations is making plans to put the entire practice of hydraulic fracturing on trial. The court is the Permanent People's Tribunal , a descendant of the Vietnam War-era International War Crimes Tribunal. The Peoples' Tribunal is a branch of no government on Earth. It has no power of enforcement. It has no army, no prison, no sheriff. So what's the point? The point is that it matters to tell the truth in a public place. It matters to affirm universal standards of right and wrong, to clearly say, "There are things that ethical people do not do to one another and to the Earth." It matters especially when international and national justice systems, even in purported democracies, are seemingly incapable of protecting people and the commons - air, water, fertile soil, stable climate and all the other necessary conditions for the e

When was the last time the Indian Parliament debated anything related to the internal affairs of an alien nation? Forget alien nation, the record of nearly 20-plus years shows that our political parties are busy pulling each other down in Parliamentary debates and very few, if any of these debates have been about or in the Indian national interest or how to protect and defend it at all times in various spheres of activity on the global stage. Is it perhaps this that gives a license to alien nations to have all sorts of debates about India with India issuing no rebuke or response to such "debates"? It is also this that gives a meddling body like the USCIRF to pronounce pompous judgements about religious freedom in various nations including India. In the specific case of the USCIRF, India to its credit, has consistently shown it its place. However, India was unable to question or reprimand some Indians who flew all the way to the US to testify in the USCIRF's Kangaroo court about matters purely internal to India. The latest in this line of prying in India's internal affairs comes in the form of the 17 March 2016 UK House of Lords debate, the gist of which is this: since the time Narendra Modi became India's Prime Minister, there has been a marked increase in violence against minorities of all hues, freedom of expression of writers and artists have been threatened, there is all-round intolerance, and the BJP and its affiliates are making India "more Hindu" (whatever that means).

Ray and Saliers, aka Indigo Girls Marriage equality was a mere pipe dream when Indigo Girls duo Emily Saliers and Amy Ray came out in 1988, coinciding with the release of their eponymous Epic Records debut. There was no groundbreaking Ellen sitcom episode. Melissa Etheridge wasn't formally out, and wouldn't be until 1993, when she released Yes I Am . Within popular entertainment, particularly within the music business, Saliers and Ray were at the forefront of the queer rights movement. They won a Grammy and released chart-toppers like "Closer to Fine." And they refused to let their sexuality get in the way of their success, brazenly being themselves at a time when being a gay public figure was uncommon and even downright scary. In Friday's print edition, we have an interview with Tony Award winner Billy Porter, so all this week, we decided to run interviews with other musicians who have taken an active role in art and politics. We caught up with Saliers, 53, and Ray, 52, at the beginning of 2017, just days before Donald Trump would become our 45th president. The trailblazers talked about how music will unify despite the divisiveness of his administration, why "this is a really good time for artists to come to the forefront and stand up and be brave," and their initial grade-school encounter that led to a devoted musical career and dear friendship spanning three decades. -- Chris Azzopardi Dallas Voice: You're on the road fairly frequently. What keeps you touring as often as y

In the history of international politics, there have been numerous ideas that proved both myopic and moronic. But few -- if any -- have proved more so than the ill-conceived idea of foisting statehood on the Palestinian-Arabs. Particularly puzzling is the fact that any prospective Palestinian state is almost certain to embody the very antithesis of the values invoked for its inception its the liberal left supporters. Gaza: The Gravest Indictment of Two-Statism. Significantly, it is Gaza, where the misguided experiment in Palestinian self-government was first initiated (1994) that has now become its gravest indictment. For in Gaza, the specter of "humanitarian disaster" hovers constantly over the general population, awash in untreated sewage flows, with well over 90 percent of the water supply unfit for drinking, electrical power available for only a few hours a day, and unemployment rates soaring to anything between 40-60 percent. Moreover, if there were any hopes that Israel's 2005 unilateral departure from Gaza would spur the Palestinian-Arab leadership to divert the focus of its efforts from terror-related activity to constructive nation-building, they were soon to be dispelled. Indeed, quite the opposite occurred. Exploiting the absence of the IDF, the Palestinian-Arab terror groups embarked on a feverish drive to enhance their capabilities to inflict harm on Israel and Israelis. To illustrate the point, when Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, the rockets which the Palest

The Conflict A cartoon published in an American newspaper in 2002 showed former President George W. Bush sitting behind his desk in the Oval Office, utterly confused by a news report he was reading about India and Pakistan going to war over Kashmir. "But why are the two countries fighting over a sweater," he asked Dick Cheney, who stood by with his usual sly smile on his face. Besides reflecting the intellectual capacity of the American president of the time, the cartoon was a realistic portrayal of the understanding that American leaders have generally shown of this longstanding dispute between Pakistan and India. Protests against Indian rule in Kashmir erupted earlier this month after a 17 year old girl was killed by a police teargas shell (AFP) The unresolved Kashmir conflict has rocked South Asia for six decades. It has created an environment of distrust and acrimony, forced the people to sink into poverty with bulk of the resources consumed by the war machines and claimed lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, as well as soldiers who died in the three wars fought between India and Pakistan. India, whose forcible occupation of Kashmir in 1947 created the conflict, refuses to settle it. The other stake holders, the Kashmiri people and Pakistan, insist on a fair solution. The international community, including the US and the United Nations, played little or no role in diffusing it either. Consequently, the conflict has developed into one of the most intractab

Violence / Raids / Clashes / Punitive house demolitions Israeli bus hits Palestinians in Jenin, 1 dead NABLUS (Ma'an) 25 Nov -- An Israeli bus driver ran over two Palestinian at al-Jalama checkpoint in Jenin, killing one person and injuring another, Palestinian security sources said Tuesday. Palestinian security sources told Ma'an that Noor Hassan Naim Salim , 22, and Alaa Kayid Salim , 20, from Nablus were injured after being run over by an Israeli bus. Hussein was taken to an Israeli hospital with serious injuries and later died. Salim was taken to Jenin governmental hospital with light injuries. Israeli police and ambulances arrived at the scene and the bus driver was arrested. [ Photo of Noor - thanks, 'just'] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=742711 Israeli driver 'hits Palestinian teen' in Jerusalem, flees scene JERUSALEM (Ma'an) 25 Nov -- A Palestinian teenager sustained injuries late Monday when an Israeli ran into him with his car and fled the scene, the teen's father said. Khamis Ahmad al-Kiswani told Ma'an that his son Khalil was standing in the Romena neighborhood in West Jerusalem when an Israeli vehicle approached him and "deliberately" ran over his foot. The driver then fled the scene, al-Kiswani said. Khalili fell to the ground in pain and called the police, who arrived a half hour later. The teen was taken to Hadassah Medical Center where doctors said he had fractures in his foot. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=742509 Israeli fo

UN Middle East Envoy Alvaro De Soto. ( UN /Devra Berkowitz ) The collapse or sacrifice of the Palestinian Authority could end all hopes of achieving a Palestinian State in a reasonable time frame, Alvaro de Soto, United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and the Secretary-General's Special Representative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, said in a briefing to the Security Council this morning. Describing a functioning Authority as an essential building block for a Palestinian State, he said it was not something that could be turned on and off like a light switch. It was through the Authority that basic social and economic services, as well as salaries, were provided. If those salaries were not paid, the humanitarian, economic, institutional, political, and security consequences could be severe. Reminding the Council of the need to stabilize the Palestinian Authority's finances, he said it faced a budget deficit of at least $260 million over the expected lifespan of the caretaker Government, mainly because of Israel's decision to withhold tax and customs revenue transfers of up to $130 million -- money which belonged to Palestinians. He welcomed the European Union's decision, announced yesterday, to provide $143 million in emergency assistance, and cautioned that cutting off assistance prior to the formation of a new Palestinian Government might be interpreted as punishment of the Palestinian people for the way i

On February 14, Nikolas Cruz shot and killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. He wounded at least a dozen more. I wish we could all mourn together. Yes, school shootings shouldn't happen. It's a tragedy that's beyond all comprehension. Yet, we can't do that. The institutional left won't allow it. Right now, the media and the anti-gun Left are preparing for another assault on our constitutional rights based on shoddy data and hyper-emotionalism: two things that lead to very bad policy. There is a reaction to do something; it's warranted. Kids are dead. And I know saying that nothing could have stopped this shooting is unacceptable to a lot of people, especially the parents of the 17 victims. Sadly, it looks like that's where we are here. Like terrorism, when someone is determined to kill, they will do so. Given what Democrats want to enact regarding new guns laws, we're left (again) with the same conclusion: it wouldn't have stopped the Florida shooter. Was Nikolas Cruz troubled? Yes, but that's not necessarily a crime. He never had any past violent convictions that would have barred him from purchasing an AR-15 rifle, nor was he adjudicated as being mentally defective . Again, the kid had issues. The local police visited his residence 39 times over the past seven years, with an investigation being launched in September of 2016, after Cruz cut himself on Snapchat. The signs were there. What happened? The worst feeling is the notion that

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) the GOP establishment's preferred candidate for president after his mentor Jeb Bush began sliding significantly in the polls, is now--for the first time since co-authoring the Gang of Eight amnesty bill two years ago--backing an immigration enforcement bill in the U.S. Senate. Rubio's support for an immigration enforcement bill, however, comes only after Breitbart News exposed that following the collapse of his Gang of Eight plan, Rubio shunned conservative attempts to crack down on immigration. For more than two years after narrowly failing to pass his Obama-backed immigration expansion, Rubio refused to sponsor or cosponsor a single immigration enforcement bill. Politico is now reporting that after Breitbart News caught Rubio publicly misrepresenting his position on immigration--i.e. claiming that he was concerned about securing the border while eschewing all of his colleague's efforts to actually do so-- Rubio's staff hurriedly attached his name to a sanctuary city bill. Politico writes : "Rubio, now vying for the Republican presidential nomination, was an author of the comprehensive immigration reform bill that passed the Senate in 2013...Rubio has come under pressure recently from the conservative news outlet Breitbart for not yet sponsoring legislation to crack down on illegal immigration and sanctuary cities." Politico's top immigration reporter, Seung Min Kim, tweeted : "Interesting: Rubio co-sponsors new Vitter immigration bill cracki

(Note: The Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) refers to the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem which have been under Israeli occupation since 1967 ) Apartheid roads and restrictions on freedom of movement Israel has created a system of extensive roads in the Palestinian territories, primarily in the West Bank, which connect Jewish colonies to each other and to Israel. These roads are largely off-limits to Palestinians even though they are built on occupied Palestinian land. Palestinians are forced to use an alternative road network of inferior and more circuitous roads that run between the Israeli road network. In effect a two-tier road system -- Israeli and Palestinian -- operates side-by-side [1] . The first major impact of the forbidden road regime is that it has placed severe restrictions on Palestinian freedom of movement, effectively stifling the economy. A scheme of manned checkpoints, the Separation Wall, road blocks and a permit system ensure that Palestinians use the alternate system of sub-level streets, dirt roads and tunnels to by-pass settlements [2] . While Jewish settlers can travel freely without any hindrance on roads, Palestinians are required to present permits and need to be approved by IDF soldiers [3] . They are subject to constant delays, long lines and humiliating searches at check points. Access to receiving and providing medical services is also a serious concern; at least 39 cases of Palestinians dying due to delays at check points have been

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, went against the Obama administration's own line when he said Thursday that the Israeli military acted "responsibly" and went to "extraordinary lengths" to minimize Palestinian civilian casualties during Operation Protective Edge last summer. State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki confirmed Friday during a daily press briefing in Washington that the administration still believes "Israel could have done more to prevent civilian casualties" during the offensive on the Gaza Strip. She made the remarks in direct response to a question that referenced both the general's declaration and the State Department's condemnation of Israel's Aug. 3 shelling of a United Nations Reliefs and Works Agency school in Rafah. Psaki issued a statement after that attack, saying that the US was "appalled." She described it as "disgraceful." "The coordinates of the school, like all UN facilities in Gaza, have been repeatedly communicated to the Israeli Defense Forces," she said. "The suspicion that militants are operating nearby does not justify strikes that put at risk the lives of so many innocent civilians. We call for a full and prompt investigation of this incident as well as the recent shelling of other UNRWA schools." Dempsey made the remarks at a Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs conference in New York. He praised widely-criticized tactics, claiming that Israel's dropping of leaflets and its "roof-knocking" suffici

With colonization comes violence and rights violations: Israeli soldiers enforce curfew in the West Bank city of Hebron to make the area secure for Israeli settlers to worship during the Jewish festival of Sukkot, October 2006. (Mamoun Wazwaz/ MaanImages ) The following letter was sent on 26 November 2007 to key negotiating parties including the President of the Palestinian National Authority, the Israeli Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, and EU and UN Officials: As Palestinian human rights and civil society organizations, we the undersigned, are deeply concerned by the lack of a clearly articulated legal framework for the upcoming diplomatic negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority ( PNA ) to be held at Annapolis on 27 November. While the process of negotiation is inherently political, the legitimate demands of the Palestinian people to dignity, territorial sovereignty and self-determination as enshrined in binding international law may not be made the subjects of negotiation. Following 40 years of occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, and numerous rounds of failed diplomatic initiatives, international law must at last be understood to be the essential over-arching framework for negotiations. International law not only provides a means of dispassionately assessing Israel's existing policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory ( OPT ), but also limits the discretion of the negotiating parties, a

The media, politicians and leftist groups call Gaza's wire-cutting, stone throwing rioters--peaceful. Really ? Dear Friend of FLAME: Last week, a young Syria man tried to sneak across the border between Syria and Turkey. Unsurprisingly, he was shot dead by Turkish border guards. We didn't read about this incident because the mainstream media have no interest in Muslims being killed by Muslims for violating borders. But when Arabs violently attack Israel's borders--and refuse to back off despite numerous warnings and deterrents such as rubber bullets and tear gas--then are shot and killed, suddenly it's a war crime worthy of U.N. inquiry. Indeed, the notoriously anti-Israel U.N. Human Rights Council has already begun such an inquiry--into Israel's actions, but not Hamas's. Ultra-left Amnesty International claims Israel is using "excessive deadly force against protesters, including children, who merely demand an end to Israel's brutal policies towards Gaza." Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders believes the key issue on the Gaza border is "the right of all people to protest for a better future without a violent response." Amnesty and Bernie seem to have missed key memos from leaders of the terrorist group Hamas, which organized last week's riots. The "March of Return," as Hamas calls it, has nothing to do with Israel's policies toward Gaza , but rather constitutes what Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh calls "the beginning of a return (of the Palestinian people) to the entirety

The world's most entertaining anti-gay hater is at it again, delivering perhaps his most hilariously insane diatribe yet. Harlem pastor James David Manning, who recently admitted he's been tempted by gay sex, now seems to have a strange fascination with Justin Bieber's torso. In fact, Manning is convinced that Bieber is a transgender man who cut off his breasts and probably regrets it. Manning blames churches, the media and politicians -- including President Barack Obama -- for leading people like Bieber to believe that they can choose any "sexual orientation" they want. But Manning vows to protect the children in his flock from those influences by chasing every "sodomite" and "lesbo" with the "chariots of fire." Here's a transcript: "I want people to hear this so they can understand that you and I are not lunatics, we're not haters, we're not filled with evil. They need to know that these young girls, if we don't stand like you and I are standing and preach, they can be led or influenced to cut off their breasts once they get into puberty. They can be led to have operations like Justin Bieber. They can think that the best choice for their life is to cut off their breasts, and go through this period that's so pervasive in television and everywhere else, and then by the time they reach the age of 20 years old, they look and say: 'I wish I had never cut off my breasts. I wish I had nee mutilated my flesh. I wish I had never mutilated my penis. I wish I had not done that. I w

Violence / Detentions -- West Bank / Jerusalem Elderly Palestinian man and donkey killed after being hit by Israeli motorcyclist IMEMC/Agencies 10 Aug -- An 85-year-old Palestinian died on Wednesday after he was run over by an Israeli settler driving a motorcycle near the community of Khirbet al-Marajim, west of the southern Nablus village of Douma. Palestinian security sources told Ma'an News Agency that an investigation was opened to determine if the incident had been a deliberate attack or an accident. The Palestinian was identified as Mousa Mohammad Salman , 85, a shepherd from the Nablus-area village of Talfit . Hasan Faraj, a relative of Salman, said that Salman succumbed to critical injuries after arriving at al-Najah University Hospital, in Nablus. Salman had been riding a donkey and herding sheep when he was run over. The donkey was also killed in the incident. The settler was injured before Israeli soldiers called for an Israeli ambulance that took him to hospital. Settler violence against Palestinians and their property is common in the Nablus area, as the district is surrounded by 12 Israeli settlements and 37 outposts.... http://imemc.org/article/elderly-palestinian-man-and-donkey-killed-after-being-hit-by-israeli-motorcyclist/ Army jeep rams a child near Jenin IMEMC 10 Aug -- An Israeli military jeep rammed, on Wednesday evening, a Palestinian child south of the northern West Bank city of Jenin, before the soldiers detained and interrogated him instead of provid

"Out of the 2.77 crore population of the state, only 0.06 percent was found abusing drugs, which is the lowest percentage across the nation," said Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal in February 2016, citing a 2015 study as he criticised Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal for projecting Punjab as a drugs haven . Since election fever gripped the state last year, Badal has been protesting the "dubbing [of] Punjabis as drug addicts as part of a defamation campaign against Punjab and Punjabis". But Badal's response to Kejriwal misquotes the 2015 study (conducted by the Society for Promotion of Youth & Masses, an NGO, in collaboration with the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, or AIIMS): The 2015 study "was not about all drugs, but just one type of drug--opioids, which means products of the opium plant, such as heroin and morphine, or synthetic drugs, which affect the body like opium", said lead investigator Atul Ambekar, additional professor, National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre and Department of Psychiatry, AIIMS. "The WHO describes the following categories of drugs other than opioids (and tobacco and alcohol) that may cause dependence: cannabis, sedatives, hallucinogens, cocaine and amphetamine type stimulants, and inhalants." The study interviewed a sample of 3,620 opioid-dependent people to estimate that Punjab has 232,000 opioid-dependents. It also said there may be up to 860,000 opioid users in the state

In the aftermath of Turkey's June 24 elections, "won" amid fraud and intimidation by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the alliance between his Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Muhsin Yorulmaz takes a look at the post-election climate. The most pressing issue for the socialist movement in Turkey is the lack of rights usually afforded in a capitalist democracy. This makes organisation more difficult than in many other countries. Turkey continues to languish under a country-wide "state of emergency", referred to as "OHAL". This state of affairs is anything but exceptional. Erdogan promised an end to OHAL as part of the recent election campaign, but after his re-election, this promise is being kept in the most disingenuous way possible: under the anti-terror law, the AKP-MHP government is proposing a "partial OHAL" involving "crisis administration zones". In effect, this is using words to mask an indefinite extension of martial law. Under OHAL, Erdogan and his clique have continuously condemned and issued legal measures against labour strikes, which are increasingly frequent as the economic and political crises mirror each other. Labour struggles One struggle of particular note is the ongoing two-month long Flormar workers' resistance, where workers have called for a boycott of Flormar and Yves Rocher cosmetic products. The women workers have employed the bold slogan: "We don't become beautiful with makeup, but with resista

Soon... Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Today in Instant Politics -- in which a range of writers, pundits, politicians, and thinkers discuss the 2012 race for Daily Intel -- the Atlantic 's James Fallows and Bloomberg's Josh Barro talk about Mitt Romney's narrowing path to victory, the prospects of a GOP reformation if he loses, and whether our national politics are doomed to become like California's. James : Greetings Josh, nice to meet you this way. Here's my starting point: I've learned over the years that you can't ever take anything for granted in politics. For a while after the 2008 GOP convention, lots of people (not including me!) thought that Sarah Palin was the genius choice that was going to save McCain. When I worked for Jimmy Carter in 1976, we thought for a while we would win in a walk, but it ended up being very close near the end. So, let's do a For the Record boilerplate that we don't know what is going to happen in six-plus weeks. With that all stipulated, can you suggest a case for a Romney win now? Josh : Anything is possible, but I find it hard to imagine Romney winning at this point without a major external event that damages the president or a boneheaded move from Obama that would be atypical of his previous, fairly steady performance. I think the leaked fund-raiser video was quite damaging, and the damage will become more apparent through October as the Obama campaign uses the footage over and over in attacks. One reason this is such a problem

On the evening of 8 November 2016, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a televised public address, announced that the highest denominations of the Indian Rupee -- Rs 500 and 1,000 notes -- would cease to be legal tenders starting midnight. A hugely momentous but polarising move that it was, the renewed monetary policy sent shockwaves across the gigantic consumerist economy of post-liberalisation India that is heavily dependent on cash transactions. But, as stated by Modi in his hour-long speech, the decisive move is designed to curb the very real menace of 'corruption, black money, and terrorism'. In a categorical-yet-measured reference, the prime minister also weighed in on the significance of the decision in suppressing the counterfeit notes racket in the country, run by "enemies from across the border". By now, it is a well-established fact that India faces a serious threat from what is officially referred to as Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN). The fake notes find their way into the country through several entry points, the hot ones being the India-Nepal and West Bengal-Bangladesh border sectors. Although there exists no precise estimates for the scale of this counterfeit economy, the Ministry of Home Affairs states that up till September 2015, "high quality FICN" worth Rs 22.90 crore was seized and recovered . The fake money not only dilutes the strength of the national economy but also sponsors an expansive web of illegal non-state and anti-state actors, in the li

By Jeremy Salt 'Violence is not the way.' How often did we hear Tony Blair say it? We know that violence should not be the way but we know that it is often is. The 'we' definitely does not include Blair, an architect of extreme violence in the Middle East. We know from history that violent states can often leave the peaceful with nothing left but violence to stop them going any further. This is the paradoxical trap in human behavior: the violent can ultimately impose violence on the peaceful. We would be deluding ourselves if we think that such a point has not been reached with Israel or has not been almost reached; we have to leave open the slim possibility that somehow it will come to its senses and do what it could have done decades ago, make peace with the Palestinians and through them with the Arab and Muslim worlds and, in fact, with the world in general, but this does not seem likely. The Zionist leaders knew from the beginning that the only way they could take Palestine would be through war. Jabotinsky was blunt about it, Ben-Gurion honest only in his private correspondence: only by fire and sword could Israel be created out of Palestine and having stepped on this path Israel has never stepped off it. Over seven decades it has waged war after war: against the Palestinians, against Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia, against any state, organisation or individual that gets in its way. It has massacred, assassinated and bombed ambulances, hospitals, schools, U

While the US remains mum on the negotiating terms, the two parties are sparring over the central question of whether the talks are based on Israel's 1967 borders or not. The argument comes amid widespread skepticism on both sides that the US-brokered diplomacy will lead to a breakthrough to end more than a century of conflict. "They have zero chances of reaching an end of conflict, end of claims agreement," says Yossi Alpher, a leading Israeli analyst who is former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies. ''The positions are too far apart on narrative issues like the future of holy places and the right of return'' of Palestinians who fled or were expelled at Israel's establishment in 1948. By saying yes to the American invitation to negotiate, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are avoiding the possibility of being cast as rejectionists by Secretary of State John Kerry, who made six visits to the region in his effort to bring the two sides to an agreement to talk. It is possible that this same desire not to be blamed will keep the two sides engaged for the near future. There are also more optimistic voices in the chorus. ''I travel with a feeling of deep responsibility and great hope,'' Israeli chief negotiator, former foreign minister, and current justice minister Tzipi Livni said before heading to Washington. ''There is a chance for the two sides to pave a way to bring about the solution of the conflict.'' On Sunday

Turkey's political, economic and social landscape has changed in tremendous ways in the last twelve years. The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government has remade Turkey's third-world style politics that were dominated by the army with policies aiming at toward normalization and democratization of politics. The power balance between bureaucrats and politicians has broken in favor of elected representatives. The political problems that once were taboo have become possible to be discussed in the public arena - e.g., the Armenian incident in 1915 and the Kurdish problem. The economy has also changed in many ways. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data, Turkey's GDP per capita has climbed from $8,217 (TL 17,409.77) in 2002, to $18,114 (TL 38,379) by 2012 with current PPP's, with an average 5 percent annual increase. Turkey has shown the second best performance in GDP growth among emerging economies in this era, following China. The Great Recession of 2008 has tested the strength of Turkey's financial system, which can hardly be defined a failure. These political and economic changes correlated with the social and cultural changes that were affecting the very core of society. Both the political center and the social center was transformed and diversified. Analysts point out that Turkey's religious groups modernized and integrated into society to a greater extent in this era. Some define this whole process as a "silent revolut

The separate identity policies of official multiculturalism foisted on Canadians by the manipulative Liberal Party of Canada have almost driven Canadians of the original pre 1968 English-speaking group out of existence. By placating minorities from all over the world and funding their hundreds, if not thousands of ethnic and racial sub-groups they have tied these groups to the Liberal Party for some 40 years. It is their modus operandi. The Liberal Party is now being driven crazy because Mr. Harper and the CPC have cottoned on to the ethnic racial vote game. The difference is that the CPC respects ethnic minorities and unlike the Liberals does not assume their voting loyalty. Minorities have matured and have come to realize that the Liberals took them for granted to the extent that they assumed they were some kind of unthinking monolithic blocks that only voted by group cultural or racial identity and could thus be forever manipulated. Think for a moment about the new immigration Study Guide, Discover Canada, that Jason Kenny, our Minister of Immigration and Multiculturalism introduced recently. If you haven't read it you should. For the first time in 40 plus years a Canadian government has talked about the real culture of Canada that has existed here for over two centuries and is not predominantly French or exclusively multicultural. The Guide encourages new Canadians to learn our history and understand the culture of freedom and democracy under the rule of law that they hav

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who ties every move he makes, every breath he takes, to God, began his Iowa caucus victory speech Monday (Feb.1), "To God be the glory." He's been that way all his 45 years -- from his childhood in evangelical private schools, up through his 2012 Senate race aimed squarely at social conservatives, up to his campaign kickoff at Jerry Falwell-founded Liberty University. Here are five faith facts about Ted Cruz: 1. He's a lot like his dad. Ted likes to quote Rafael Cruz on the campaign trail, urging people to vote by God's values -- in Christian conservative form. Rafael Cruz was a Catholic Cuban refugee working in the energy industry when Ted was born in 1970 but in 1975 became a born-again Christian. By the time Ted was a teen, Rafael was a traveling preacher . Now, Rafael pastors a church in Dallas and directs the Purifying Fire Ministries, ministering in the U.S., Mexico and Central America, and campaigns for Ted among pastors. Ted's home church is Houston's First Baptist. He likes to tell folks, "I'm Cuban, Irish and Italian, and yet somehow I ended up Southern Baptist ," according to The Dallas Morning News. 2. God has always been a theme in his political roles. "Believing is not simply sitting aside and doing a polite little golf clap," Cruz told the congregation at his friend Robert Jeffress' congregation, First Baptist Dallas. " Believing is putting everything you have , your heart, soul, life, putting everything (into) standing for what's right." H

Augsburg, Germany (AINA) -- The struggle for democracy and human rights in Syria has turned to a disaster for all ethnicities and minorities in the country. The Assad-Regime is not only fighting the rebels but also the innocent civilian people with unimaginable cruelty. Issa Hanna, co-chairman of Assyrian Democratic Organization (ADO), Section Europe, has commented in an interview on the current situation and problems in Syria. Bruckl: Mr. Hanna, you are the co-chairman of Assyrian Democratic Organization, Section Europe, and therefore you know best your fellow countrymen situation in Syria. Will you tell me first something about the Christian Assyrians in the country? Hanna: Currently Syria has a Christian population of about 3 Million, living there as independent indigenous religious and ethnic groups, among them cultural and national minorities, also numbering the Aramaic-speaking Christian Assyrians. They form an ethnic minority with its own language, literature, political and cultural organizations. The Assyrians have been present in Mesopotamia and Syria for more than three millennia; they became Christians in the first century and became fervent evangelists and missionaries. They belong to the following churches: The Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East, the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Chaldean Church of Babylon [a Roman Catholic uniate]. In the broader sense also the Greek-Melkite-Orthodox Church, the Greek-Melkite-Catholic Church, the Syrian- Evange

By Alison Saldanha and Angel Mohan Mumbai : After a decade of precarious peace, Nagaland, India's once troubled North Eastern state, now rivals and even outperforms India's richest states on a number of development outcomes, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of ten states on 20 socio-economic and health indicators. However, poor infrastructure and a fragile peace continue to be problem areas as the state - formed on 1 December, 1963 - undergoes polling on 27 February, 2018. Perched on India's eastern edge bordering Myanmar, Nagaland is roughly the size of Kuwait and has 2 million people, the same as the central Indian city of Indore. There are 16 major tribes and 20 sub-tribes, each marked by distinct clothing and jewellery; 87.93 percent of its population is Christian. English may be the official language, but over 30 languages and dialects are spoken. Representational image. News18 With a per capita income of Rs 78,367, Nagaland ranks 22nd in India, below the national average of Rs 86,454, though ahead of low-income states such as Chhattisgarh (Rs 78,001) and Rajasthan (Rs 75,201). It is also ahead of other North Eastern states such ase Meghalaya (Rs 64,638) and Assam (Rs 52,895), according to the India Economic Survey 2016-17. For the first time since Nagaland attained statehood in 1963, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which heads the ruling alliance at the Centre, is seeking to expand its presence in the state and in the rest of the North East. Along with the Naga Peo

rabble is expanding our Parliamentary Bureau and we need your help! Support us on Patreon today! Kwey Dr. Bennett, Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Re: Canada's Constitutional Beginnings Congratulations on your appointment as the Cabinet Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs. I have read the letter that outlines your mandate that the newly elected Prime Minster Justin Trudeau has ascribed to you. I am an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe of the Ottawa River Valley. Canada's Parliament buildings sit on my traditional homeland; as such my first responsibility is to welcome you to our territory. Welcome. As an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe eager to experience genuine and meaningful change in the relationship between Canada and Indigenous Nations I was particularly happy to read that Trudeau is willing to enter into nation-to-nation relationships with Indigenous Nations. In your mandate letter Trudeau states this nation-to-nation promise on three occasions: No relationship is more important to me and to Canada than the one with Indigenous Peoples. It is time for a renewed, nation-to-nation relationship with Indigenous Peoples, based on recognition of rights, respect, co-operation, and partnership. As Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs, your overarching goal will be to renew the relationship between Canada and Indigenous Peoples. This renewal must be a nation-to-nation relationship, based on recognition, rights, respect, co-operation, and partnership. I expect you to

Israeli soliders attacking mourners (Photo: Holly Rigby) The following is an eyewitness account of Mustafa Tamimi's funeral procession on Sunday. It is from a longer post on Holly Rigby's blog Carbonating Change: This has been one of the darkest and most disturbing days I have ever had to experience. The funeral of Mustafa Tamimi, murdered by the Israeli military at a demonstration at Nabi Saleh on Friday, ended with the military shooting endless rounds of the teargas canisters that killed Mustafa at unarmed mourners, beating and arresting people with impunity as they walked across Nabi Saleh village after the funeral. I had heard many times of Palestinians murdered by the military, but since being here the Palestinian struggle has become my struggle - when Mustafa died I felt my heart breaking at this unnecessary and cruel loss of life, and wept last night as if he were my own. Around 200 people marched through the streets of Ramallah this morning carrying Mustafa's body, wrapped in a Palestinian flag with a kuffieyeh to cover his head. As his body was laid in the ambulance, we got into a service to follow it to the village. On the way there, I called an activist friend of mine to let her know where we were going, and she warned me to be careful. I assured her that there was surely no way that the military would be able to unashamedly devastate the funeral of a young man with violence. I now realise just how naive that was, and how deeply I underestimated the savagery of th

16 May, 2014 Countercurrents.org H indu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won a landslide victory for Indian parliament election. BJP is set to win in 283 seats, eight more than the required half way mark in 543 member House. With its allies, the tally of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is expected to go up to 335. Narendra Modi, the BJP's leader, will be the next prime minister of India. The Congress party, that has run India for all but 13 years since independence, was set to crash to its worst ever result after a decade in power. Congress was virtually decimated as it bagged only 18 seats and was leading in 27 others. Party president Sonia Gandhi and Vice President Rahul Gandhi accepted responsibility for the defeat. There was a record turnout in the elections, with 66.38 percent of the 814 million eligible voters casting ballots during several stages of the six-week ballot. Turnout in the 2009 elections was 58.13 percent. Narendra Modi is the Chief Minister of Gujarat and a strong proponent of Hindutva. Hindutva is a virulent fascist ideology which holds a Hindu supremacist world view . Narendra Modi's role in the infamous Gujarat Pogrom , is still under legal scanner. The anti-minority carnage started following the gruesome killing of 59 Hindus on 27th February, 2002 in a train fire at Godhra. Modi's alleged to have given free reign to rioters without taking sufficient steps to prevent the massacre. The Gujarat administration was accused by the opposition o

Wednesday, August 28th, 2013 South Africa Shale Pits Shell Against Sheep Farmers by Paul Burkhardt / Bloomberg Shell applied for permission in 2011 to drill 24 exploratory wells in the Karoo. GO!/Gallo Images/Getty Images Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) ' s shale gas drilling plans for South Africa's Karoo semi-desert are pitting the government and its energy goals against farmers and conservationists like billionaire Johann Rupert who say the land will be spoiled. The government estimates enough gas can be discovered to generate 1 trillion rand ($100 billion) of sales within three decades and help bring a country that imports 70 percent of its crude oil needs closer to supplying its own energy demand. Landowners are lining up against the water-intensive drilling techniques that Europe ' s biggest oil company intends to use. "People don't see what will happen," Izak van der Merwe, a 59-year old sheep farmer, said as he sipped a beer while walking down a line of freshly slain antelope at the Murraysburg Hunting Competition, 620 kilometers (385 miles) northeast of Cape Town . "The people at Shell don't realize the kind of ecosystem we have." At stake is a government drive to cut an unemployment rate that's higher than the national average of 25.6 percent in Karoo, an arid area the size of the U.S. state of Montana with little economic activity. The shale industry could be a "game changer" for the economy, Trade Minister Rob Davies said in parliament on Aug. 22. Exploration regulat

Canadian activist Kevin Neish smuggled photos off the Mavi Marmara, the lead ship in the Free Gaza flotilla that was raided violently by Israeli troops last week, killing nine peace activists. Neish's photos were published Monday in the Middle East, in the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet and in this blog along with images taken by others, to name but two. Two are reproduced here for rabble, and he is awaiting the return of the remainder. The retired marine engineer from Victoria says he hid a photo card from his camera in his mouth, pockets and on his body while he was being detained by Israeli soldiers. He later handed the photo card to a Turkish aid group. Here is the transcript of an interview with Neish by rabble.ca's podcast network executive producer, Meagan Perry. Meagan Perry: Canadian peace activist Kevin Neish has been released by Israel and is now in Turkey. He is expected to be in Canada within the week. Rabble radio reached him to record his first interview about his experience as part of the free Gaza flotilla. Here's part of that interview: Hello Kevin, we're so glad you're okay. Kevin Neish: Hello there...I'm, well I didn't realize I was dead but ...I'm glad I'm not dead. I mean, I was kind of surprised...needless to say, everybody thought I was dead. MP: There are varying reports about what had happened... KN: It seems [the last time] anybody who wasn't in jail or you could get a hold of saw me was at the front of the ship along the hand railing talking to a coll

While the scale of the humanitarian tragedy arising from Israel's war on Gaza is obvious, it is the political repercussions that need to be carefully observed. It is important to be clear that the aim of Operation Cast Iron waged by the Israeli army was not simply to stop Hamas firing rockets into Israel. Indeed, Hamas and other Palestinian factions had observed a strict truce with Israel, brokered by Egypt, for six months from June to December 2008. This was despite the fact that Israel continued its assassinations and arrests of Palestinian militants, and refused to lift the blockade on Gaza imposed 18 months earlier. It was for this last reason in particular that Hamas and others resolved not to renew the truce. The tunnels under the border between Egypt and Gaza had become the only means the Gazans possessed of alleviating the strangulating effects of the siege imposed on them by land, sea and air. That the real aim of the war was not just to stop the rockets of Hamas is clear from the fact, disclosed by Israeli sources, that the Israeli defence minister had planned the onslaught as early as June 2008 - at the very time the six-month truce began. The rationale behind Operation Cast Iron is similar to that behind Operation Defence Shield, when Israeli tanks rolled into the West Bank and put Arafat under house arrest in March 2002. Then it was because the Palestinian president, Yasser Arafat, had rejected the 'bantustan' state, with Palestinian areas surrounded by Israeli s

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com Violence in India-controlled Kashmir takes a new turn after winter lull Indian police arrest top separatist militant commander in Kashmir Uprising in Kashmir growing into major regional war between India and Pakistan Violence in India-controlled Kashmir takes a new turn after winter lull A group of youth pelt stones at Indian security forces in Budgam on Tuesday (PTI) On Wednesday, in the district of Budgam in India-controlled Kashmir, Indian security forces raided the home of an anti-government militant Tauseef Ahmad Wagay who had allegedly been responsible for inciting violence against police. According to India media reports, villagers began obstructing the police and pelting them with stones, in order to allow the militants in the home to escape. In the end, three stone pelters were killed by police gunfire, along with the militant. Dozens of police personnel were injured. On Friday, after Friday prayers, clashes erupted between government forces and stone-throwing villagers in several towns across Kashmir, to protest the shooting deaths on Wednesday. Stone-throwing incidents have occurred occasionally in the past, but became frequent after July 8 of last year, when Burhan Wani, the leader of the Kashmir separatist group Hizbul Mujahideen, was killed by Indian police fire. Massive riots in Kashmir began the next day. Indian police responded with rubber bullets, leaving many protesters wounded or killed or blinded

ONE HUNDRED and six people were killed and over 400 injured in the bomb attacks on a "Labor, Peace and Democracy" rally in Ankara on October 10. Many activists remain in intensive care units with horrendous injuries and may not live. This is only one of several incidents in the last few months involving violence against the Turkish left and against the Kurdish people, who are primarily concentrated in the south and east of the country. Thirty-three people were killed and over 100 injured in a bombing in Suruc in southeastern Turkey on July 20. The attack was made against a socialist youth group, which was planning to take aid to the Kobane region, where Kurdish forces had, alongside the Syrian resistance, defeated a major ISIS advance in the months before. An election rally organized by the left-wing, Kurdish-supporting People's Democratic Party (HDP) was bombed on June 5, two days before the last election, killing four people and injuring 100. The attack took place in Diyarbakir in the heavily Kurdish province of eastern Turkey. Victims of the bombing of a peace protest in Ankara That attack wasn't widely reported, and the same is true of the siege of Cizre, a town in eastern Turkey. After reported clashes with fighters from the PKK, the armed Kurdish left-nationalist group, the town was encircled on all sides by the Turkish army from September 4 to 11. Cizre was shelled, roads were sealed and all food, water and basic medical supplies were cut off. Approximately 25 civilian

On 12 July 2006, conflict erupted along the border between Lebanon and Israel following an attempted abduction by Hezbollah that left eight Israeli soldiers dead and two others kidnapped: Udi Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, both reservists. The inexperienced coalition government led by the then Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, responded with a night raid, bombing sites inside Lebanon where it believed Hezbollah had hidden its medium-range rockets. Over the next 34 days northern Israel was hit by as many as 4,200 rockets, and by the time the war ended in a ceasefire on 14 August, with no apparent victor, both sides were exhausted. In Israel, the second Israel-Lebanon war was considered the worst military disaster since Yom Kippur in 1973. It resulted, directly or indirectly, in the replacement of the country's entire political and military leadership. Five years later, things look a little different. The war may have been characterised by bad judgement and even worse management, but the consequences do not appear as awful as they did earlier. The Lebanese border has enjoyed its longest period of calm since the late 1960s, and this September, for the first time in a generation, a new group of first-graders will attend schools on the Israeli side of the border not knowing what a warning alarm sounds like or what it means to hide in a bomb shelter. Al-Qaeda-affiliated groups have been responsible for the half-dozen rocket attacks since the war ended but, in contrast, Hezbollah ha

Like this article? rabble is reader-supported journalism. Chip in to keep stories like these coming. Turkey has intervened militarily into the region of northern Syria surrounding the town of Jarablus. The intervention is being conducted in the name of "fighting ISIS" but is, in fact, a pre-emptive strike to prevent the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces from expanding their influence and territorial control across northern Syria. The intervention began with a show of artillery in the early morning of August 24, followed by Turkish tanks and other armoured equipment escorting irregular forces from Turkey across the border, through neighbouring villages and into Jarablus proper. Turkey wants to block the left-wing, Kurdish-led forces of the SDF from repeating in Jarablus their recent success in liberating from ISIS occupation the city of Manbij , located some 50 km south and east of Jarablus. The intervention coincides with a dizzying about-turn by Turkey from its longstanding "regime change"policy towards the government in Syria. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim acknowledged at a press conference on August 20 that Syrian President Assad was one of the "actors" in Syria and may need to stay on as part of a "transition." Some Western media reports are playing up Turkish government descriptions that its intervention into Syria constitutes a major military assault against ISIS. But ANF News, citing local residents, said there was little fighting. Instead, ISIS forces turn

26 January, 2015 Countercurrents.org A s a keen observer of politics and a student of the Constitution, I often wonder if the 2014 Lok Sabha election results, have thrown up, in the midst of cheer and change, a much avoidable narrative of triumphanism, unilateralism and chauvinism that threaten the very Idea of India. The most visible attack has been on the secular soul of India or Bharat. Today, secularism is considered to be a bad word in our political lingo. One is often mocked for being a "sickularist" or a "pseudo secular" not just by social media supporters of the ruling party but its top leaders and spokespersons who have polluted and adulterated the word. Firstly the contention of the ruling party leading lights, that former PM Indira Gandhi began the politics of 'minority appeasement' and introduced the dirty word of 'secular' into our Preamble is just not correct. The founding fathers had already discussed the issue of secularism thread bare in the Constituent Assembly and had consciously introduced Articles and Provisions that made 'secularism' an inalienable part of our constitution. It was an affirmative decision to not replicate Pakistan and become a theocratic state albeit of the Hindu variety. The definition of secularism is coming under great scrutiny after May 16th 2014. Some say, it was the 'minority appeasement' in the garb of secularism that they are opposed to. Fair enough but why are the same set of people not opposed to 'majoritarian appeasement' in th

When will the politicians, some conservatives included, finally learn from the endless mistakes in the Middle East? For how much longer will we send our soldiers to die on the sword of Islam, refereeing untenable Islamic civil wars, with no outcome for our side other than casualties, hundreds of billions of dollars spent, arming more Islamists, and feeling the responsibility to take in refugees and "interpreters" from all sides of the civil war? Nobody wants to see the terrible photos streaming from the media of the civilian casualties in the Syrian Islamic civil war. But nobody in the media engaging in yellow journalism or in the political class can articulate a vision of what our involvement would look like. They just use pictures of children as an undefined policy punch line. They say we must destroy ISIS. Then they say we must get Russia and Iran out of Syria. They now say we must go after Assad for using chemical weapons. Are there no serious policy-makers willing to point out that these goals are mutually exclusive, are not in our strategic interests, will result in no good outcome for us, and will not end the violence? Why there is no good move in Syria This administration has already doubled down on our re-involvement in Iraq and sent troops to "fight ISIS" in Syria. Now the president is hinting at going after Assad -- with no understanding of what that looks like in terms of fighting ISIS. Do we send half our troops to fight ISIS and half to fight Assad the same way

22 February, 2015. Countercurrents.org T he widespread demonstration of solidarity displayed by various sections of people in Maharashtra in support of the murdered veteran Communist leader Govind Pansare has been most encouraging. It sows that there is silent admiration for leaders who are dedicated, simple, secular and honest. The Communist movement in Maharashtra and elsewhere has produced more such leaders than perhaps any other party has. In contrast to the heartfelt response of the masses, there was a strange silence from a large section of liberals who should be normally most concerned about attacks on liberty and freedom of expression. Mr Pansare was well-known in the Left movement , had done immense work among the poor in his home district of Kolhapur and elsewhere and was an inspiration for activists from other parties as well. The adulation he received in death shows people do respect honesty in public life and they are thoroughly disgusted with widespread corruption in various political parties. The killing of Mr Govind Pansare cannot be seen in isolation from the political developments in Maharashtra in the last few decades. The killing immediately brings to mind the brutal murder of Krishna Desai, the Communist party of India MLA, in Mumbai in 1970 at the hands of Shiv Sena supporters.That murder was the turning point in politics and saw the rise of the Shiv Sena and the beginning of the ebbing of the then strong working class movement in Maharashtra. Desai was

Jonathan Cook The Electronic Intifada 30 November 2006 Just a few of the thousands of Palestinians who have been rendered homeless by Israel's punitive house demolitions. Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, 21 October 2006. ( MaanImages /Hatem Omar) If one thing offers a terrifying glimpse of where the experiment in human despair that is Gaza under Israeli siege is leading, it is the news that a Palestinian woman in her sixties -- a grandmother -- chose last week to strap on a suicide belt and explode herself next to a group of Israeli soldiers invading her refugee camp. Despite the "Man bites dog" news value of the story, most of the Israeli media played down the incident. Not surprisingly -- it is difficult to portray Fatma al-Najar as a crazed fanatic bent only on the destruction of Israel. It is equally difficult not to pause and wonder at the reasons for her suicide mission; according to her family, one of her grandsons was killed by the Israeli army, another is in a wheelchair after his leg had to be amputated, and her house had been demolished. Or not to think of the years of trauma she and her family have suffered living in a open-air prison under brutal occupation, and now, since the "disengagement", the agonising months of grinding poverty, slow starvation, repeated aerial bombardments, and the loss of essentials like water and electricity. Or not to ponder at what it must have been like for her to spend every day under a cloud of fear, to be powerless against a largely uns

In an interview given to Russia's RIA Novosti and Sputnik news agencies, President al-Assad said that we always announce that Syria is ready to cooperate with any country who is genuinely ready or wants or has the will to fight terrorism. He added that he is already aware that the West supports the terrorists and it doesn't have a will to fight them. Following is the full text of the interview: Thank you, Mr. President, for giving an opportunity for this interview, and I will start with the recent tragic event in Aleppo, where the majority of those killed and wounded were children. Who do you think organized this crime, and on what purpose? A few months ago, the same agreement was about to be implemented, but as you know, you're talking about different factions, all of them are linked to Al Qaeda or al-Nusra Front, and one of those factions attacked the buses that wanted to transport the same civilians outside of al-Foua'a and Kefraya beside Aleppo, and they attacked those buses and they burned them, and it was shown on the internet, where they said "we won't allow this reconciliation to happen, we're going to kill every civilian that wants to use the buses," and that's what happened. When we thought that everything is ready to implement that reconciliation, they did what they announced, and they are al-Nusra Front, they didn't hide themselves from the very beginning, and I think everybody agrees that this is al-Nusra. Any specific group or al-Nusra itself? No, because when

Workers World received this report on Jan. 19 from the editor of Justice for Iraq in Britain about the ongoing battle in Mosul. The U.S. reports this battle as an attack on the Islamic State group (IS), but as is said here, most of the victims are civilian residents of this large Iraqi city. Dear Friends, As you might have heard, the [U.S.] American Coalition has been bombing civilian areas in Mosul. Over the past few days the coalition targeted three houses of well-known professors and researchers at Mosul University. One of them was my college professor and mentor, Dr. Mohamad Tybee Al-Layla. Dr. Al-Layla got his Ph.D. in geotechnical engineering from the University of Texas. He worked as a faculty member in the Department of Civil Engineering at the Engineering College of the University of Mosul since the early 1970s. He was assigned to be the chairperson of the Civil Engineering Department and the college dean twice. He supervised more than 30 Ph.D. and master degree theses in geotechnical engineering and civil engineering. He published 48 research and technical papers in Iraq and abroad, and became an editor of three scientific journals and magazines. He also received a prestigious award at Iraqi Science Day, June 2, 2014. Dr. Al-Layla worked hard with utmost sincerity for about 40 years to educate and help thousands of highly efficient and intelligent engineers graduate. Many of them became ministers, deputy ministers, academics and high-ranking executive directors i

A Palestinian citizen of Israel is arrested by Israeli riot police at a protest commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Nakba in Saffuriya village outside Nazareth, 8 May 2008. (Keren Manor/ ActiveStills ) Defining the status of the Palestinian citizens of Israel has always been a puzzle for many scholars. One called the Palestinian citizens "semi-citizens" with accidental citizenship. Another distinguished between "liberal citizenship" granted to the Arabs and "republican citizenship" granted to the Jews. A third distinguished between "incidental citizenship" granted to the Arabs and "substantive citizenship" granted to the Jews. I have contributed to this discussion by claiming that the Palestinians are "citizens without citizenship." The "citizen without citizenship" is the citizen who is excluded from the political community, from the dominant public sphere and from the common public good. This citizen has rights within the state but does not have rights over the state, to use the terms used by then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. To this citizen, the state is his home, but his home is not his national home, as Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Tzipi Livni would have it. He is the citizen who is supposedly equal as an individual but his equality is subordinated to the general condition of discrimination, as is evident in the liberal Zionist position and the Israeli high court's approach. The Jewish state transforms the Arab citizens into citizens without citizenship

Pennsylvania Groups Demand Voice In Oil & Gas Decisions By Clean Air Council, www.cleanair.org March 28, 2015 Pennsylvania Groups Demand Voice In Oil & Gas Decisions 2015-03-28 2015-03-28 https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.png PopularResistance.Org https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2015/03/Screen-Shot-2015-03-13-at-10.43.34-AM-150x99.png 200px 200px Impacted communities and public interest groups slam industry association for saying public should not have a place in PA oil and gas oversight Oil pumps and drilling equipment in an oil field in Kern County. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) Residents living in the shale fields and public interest groups are outraged at the latest comments from the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association (PIOGA). Last week, Kevin Moody from PIOGA stated at public hearings with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) that public interest considerations "have no place" on oil and gas oversight bodies. In response to PIOGA, residents in the shale fields and public interest groups are renewing their calls for full public participation in the changing oil and gas regulations. "They finally said it out loud," said Joseph Otis Minott, Esq., Executive Director of the Clean Air Council. "This confirms that the industry wants to be regulated only by itself. It is beyond time for members of impacted communities and public interest groups to be involved in the ov

Seeing Israel's prisons through Palestinian eyes Published Aug 27, 2009 9:03 PM By Sharon Eolis Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip, populated by 1.5 million Palestinians, is virtually an open-air prison--a place of punishment and exile for Palestinians. No one can officially get in or out of Gaza unless given permission at border checkpoints that are opened at the whim of Israel and Egypt. If your name is not on a pre-existing list, you can't get into Gaza or leave it. Mothers in Gaza show pictures of their imprisoned sons. WW photo: Judy Greenspan At the end of the recent Viva Palestina U.S. convoy, a Palestinian man with a U.S. passport tried to bring his family out of Gaza so they could travel back to the U.S. Although his spouse and children have U.S. passports, Egyptian border guards refused to allow the bus through the checkpoint with them aboard. Convoy delegates tried to carry the children across the border, but security guards refused to allow this and held the bus up for over an hour. Only those who had been on the bus when it entered Gaza were allowed to return. The Palestinian delegate had to leave his family behind when he returned to Egypt. Prisons in Israel In addition to the open-air prison of the Gaza Strip, more than 11,000 Palestinian women, men and children are incarcerated in Israeli maximum security facilities like Nufha, Haderim, Jalamy, and Ashkalon, among others. In Gaza City, a group of Palestinian women with family members languishing in Israeli prisons desc

Daesh fighters kept up on Wednesday their fierce defence of the southern approaches to Mosul, which has held up Iraqi troops there and forced an elite army unit east of the city to put a more rapid advance on hold. Ten days into what is expected to be the biggest ground offensive in Iraq since the US-led invasion of 2003, army and federal police units aim to dislodge the militants from villages in the region of Shora, 30 km (20 miles) south of Mosul. The frontlines in other areas have moved much closer to the edges of the city, the last major stronghold under control of the militants in Iraq, who have held it since 2014. The elite army unit which moved in from the east has paused its advance as it approaches built-up areas, waiting for the other attacking forces to close the gap. "As Iraqi forces move closer to Mosul, we see that Daesh resistance is getting stronger," said Major Chris Parker, a coalition spokesman at the Qayyara airbase south of Mosul that serves as a hub for the campaign. Daesh is an Arabic acronym for Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. The combat ahead is likely to get more deadly as 1.5 million residents remain in the city and worst-case UN forecasts see up to a million people being uprooted. A Reuters correspondent on the southern front met villagers and police who said their relatives had been taken as human shields to cover the fighters' retreat from the area. The militants have been using suicide car-bombs extensively to fight off the advancing

Selling Beauty Queens and Fairness Creams Beauty pageant winners in India have become national icons who peddle Western ideals of beauty in an increasingly consumerist culture. Their huge, glowing faces smile down from billboards on the mere mortal residents of big cities like Mumbai and Delhi. Each tooth in their wide grins gleams with perfect whiteness; each strand of their shiny hair lies smoothed flawlessly into place. Their likenesses plaster the covers of women's magazines and the scores of advertisement pages within. Turn on the television, and you'll be sure to encounter at least one of them expounding on the virtues of the latest shampoo or beauty product. A quick glance at the front page of some of India's biggest newspapers on any given day will yield another glimpse of their tall, toned figures or their playfully pouting faces gracing wide expanses of space below some bold headline announcing their latest accomplishment. They star in the biggest Bollywood movies, they shake hands with the most famous public officials, and their names are foreign only to those denizens of the most remote villages. Welcome to 2004 in India, where these women have become some of the country's most celebrated public figures and symbols of national pride. Who are they? Why, none other than those living dolls that have been crowned the princesses of the world -- the winners of international beauty pageants. In recent years, the list of Indian successes in the global beauty contest arena

It is looking more likely that Turkish forces will make a military move on Afrin, the Syrian Kurdish-controlled canton in northwest Syria, in an effort to root out the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), a force that Ankara labels as terrorists. Such a move could trigger a new, bloody phase of the long-running Syrian civil war. Afrin has long been a point of tension for Turkey. The area is separated from two other Kurdish-controlled cantons--Koban i and Jazira--in northeast Syria by a narrow strip of land west of the Euphrates. That strip is controlled by Turkish-backed rebels who seized the area in conjunction with the Turkish military in late 2016 and early 2017 as part of an operation that Ankara dubbed Euphrates Shield. Turkey had pushed that offensive despite U.S. objections in order to prevent Kurdish forces from linking up all three cantons. Ankara feared that if the Syrian Kurds unified all three cantons, Turkey would be largely cut off from the rest of Syria and the odds of a durable, autonomous Syrian Kurdish presence along Turkey's southern border would increase. Ankara views a Kurdish statelet as a profound threat to its national security, fearing such an entity would further enflame Turkey's long-running domestic Kurdish insurgency. While Turkey declared victory in the Euphrates Shield operation--having prevented the Kurds from linking their territories--they remain far from happy with the status quo, particularly with U.S. support to Kurdish forces in Koban

Don't whine. Trumpers need an establishment enemy in the Senate to hate and Romney is the perfect foil . You won't have Corker and Flake to kick around by 2019 and McCain might retire before then for health reasons. Ben Sasse will still be there but he'll need to tone down his Trump-bashing with his own 2020 reelection bid creeping up. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski are reliable no votes but neither one of them is likely to spar with Trump rhetorically as Corker and Flake have done. And we've all seen how timid the, ahem, libertarians -- Mike Lee, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz -- are when it comes to battling with Trump. All three of them just endorsed Roy Moore, for cripes sake. They're not going to wrangle with a populist POTUS. It'll be Senator Romney by default who'll quickly become the base's prime hate object and the de facto leader of the anti-Trump caucus. It's gonna be lit. Lit, I tell you. Unless of course Romney rolls over and becomes a Trumper too. In which case "Salon Conservatives" club will disband in ruin and disgrace. Senator Orrin Hatch has privately told allies in Utah that he is planning to retire at the end of his term next year, and if he does, Mitt Romney intends to run for his seat, according to five sources familiar with the situation... Sources close to both men said plans have already been set in motion for Hatch to retire and for Romney to run, but they cautioned that the timing of the announcements has not yet been finalized, and that either man could

They say it's too easy. According to 48 percent of American voters , it's "too easy" to have an abortion in this country. Every year, legislatures introduce hundreds of bills to restrict abortion. Every year, dozens pass. This year has been no exception. The Center for Reproductive Rights published a report on the nearly 50 new laws that have already been passed this year: biased counseling, forced ultrasounds, bans on insurance coverage, parental notification... And it's only September. Louisiana was among the many states to pass new laws restricting abortion. One of them gave the state's Department of Health the authority to shut down any abortion clinic -- permanently -- for health and safety concerns. And it had its first success : it shut down the Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport. According to the Department of Health: The Legislature gave us this authority because they recognized we must have the ability to stop unsafe practices that place these already vulnerable women in danger. But closing abortion clinics doesn't protect vulnerable women. And under Louisiana's new law, once a clinic is shut down by the health department, its owners and managers are prohibited from ever operating another clinic, ensuring one less provider for the women of Louisiana and making it that much harder for them to obtain an abortion in that state. The State of Louisiana just accomplished what the terrorists who attempted to bomb that same clinic in 2005 failed to do, shutting down

09 December, 2009 TomDispatch.com M uch is heard of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but the story of the determined, long-term nonviolent resistance of many Palestinian villagers to the loss of their lands, striking as it may be, is seldom told. Here's my report from just one village on the West Bank. At no time since its 1967 West Bank occupation have Israel's seizures of Palestinian land and water resources seemed as shocking as the ones attending its construction of "the wall," begun in 2002. Vast, complex, and shifting in form, the wall appears most dramatically as 25-foot-high concrete slabs punctuated by militarized watch towers, supplemented by electronically monitored electrified fences stretching over vast distances. In 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared the wall illegal, but Israel ignored the ruling. Now, it undulates through the West Bank for over 280 kilometers, clasping Israel's major colonies and some minor ones in its embrace. The completed wall will incorporate more than 85% of the West Bank's settler population, a de facto annexation by Israel of significant chunks of the territory it first occupied in 1967. This is the dream of Greater Israel rapidly turned into architecture. For the Palestinians, however, the wall means theft, separating many Palestinian cities and villages from their land and water. Jayyous, with a population of 3,500, is one of those villages. It lies nestled in a mountainous northern West Bank landscap

The following is the full text of the interview: Thank you for seeing us Mr President. As you know, the British government today will be voting on whether it will join the coalition airstrikes against ISIS. Is Britain right to join airstrikes against ISIS in Syria? And do you welcome its involvement, and will it make things worse or not make a change? If I want to let's say, evaluate a book, I cannot take or single out a phrase from that book to evaluate the whole book. I have to look at the headlines, then the titles of the chapters and then we can discuss the rest of the book. So, what we are talking about is only an isolated phrase. If we want to go back to the headline, it is "the will to fight terrorism." We know from the very beginning that Britain and France were the spearheads in supporting the terrorists in Syria, from the very beginning of the conflict. We know that they don't have that will, even if we want to go back to the chapter on military participation with the coalition, it has to be comprehensive, it has to be from the air, from the ground, to have cooperation with the troops on the ground, the national troops for the interference or participation to be legal. It is legal only when the participation is in cooperation with the legitimate government in Syria. So, I would say they don't have the will and they don't have the vision on how to defeat terrorism. And if you want to evaluate, let's evaluate from the facts. Let's go back to the reality on the ground.

Mohsin Sadique's Murder And The Solapur Jigsaw 25 June, 2014 The Citizen T he murder of 28 year old computer technician Mohammad Mohsin Sadique Shaikh, on Monday the 2nd of June 2014 in Pune has been called shocking by many on more accounts than one. For one the crime was a ghastly violent one. After being severely with hockey sticks and thick wooden staves, his head was smashed in with a heavy stone to finish the job. Secondly, despite its proximity to Mumbai which has seen repeated communal violence, the biggest one being the 1992 riots which killed many hundreds and displaced over two million people; and despite being a well known hub of extreme Hindu Right wing groups, Pune has little history of communal riots. So the hate crime enacted at around 8:30 pm in the Hadapsar area of the city, wherein two dozen odd motorbike riding people bludgeon a young man tod death is a troubling exception. But what seems to have struck people most is the sudden and unfortunate tragedy that befell a random innocent citizen. As was his daily routine Mohsin came back from work, freshned up and went for the Isha Namaz and collecting his tiffin from the mess next door was headed home for dinner with his roommates when this gang of two dozen odd men bellonging to a hitherto unknown group, the eponymous Hindu Rashtra Sena, came riding on eight motorbikes and even though completely unprovoked, chose a man randomly picked out from the street and bludgeoned him to death. The randomness of the killin

Editor's Note: In April this year, Union Home Ministry removed 44 districts from the list of those affected by Left Wing Extremism (LWE), indicating a shrinking of the area of Maoist influence in the country. This is the result of a multi-pronged strategy that includes an offensive security and sustained development to wean away the locals from Maoist ideology. However, this is not the end of Maoist supremacy in the Red Corridor. The danger is very much lurking in the jungles, beaten, bruised and ready for retaliation. The bigger challenge for the administration is to enter the Maoist stronghold and carry out development right under the nose of the extremists. So, what exactly is the situation on the ground? Debobrat Ghose of Firstpost takes a trip through the Dandakaranya forests in the Maoist-hotbed of Bastar division of Chhattisgarh -- one of the most badly affected regions by LWE and site of some of the deadliest attacks on the state by Maoists -- to see the changes that have reached some villages, how willing are the villagers in embracing those changes, the immense risk state administration and security forces personnel undertake daily to effect those changes, all in the shadow of the Maoists who are far from finished. Jagdalpur town, headquarters of Bastar district, 8.30 am. After a good night's sleep and a filling breakfast, it was time for me to move on to my next destination in my quest to find out how some areas in the Bastar division in Chhattisgarh are trying to

Army operations in India-administered Kashmir were halted on May 16 at the start of the Muslim fasting month, despite a months-long escalation of violence in the Muslim-majority Himalayan region. Indian troops stand guard during a clashes with Kashmiri protestors after Friday prayers during the last Friday of Holy month of Ramadan in downtown Srinagar on June 8, 2018. ( Reuters Archive ) India said on Sunday it was resuming military operations against rebels in disputed Kashmir region after a rare 30-day suspension for Ramadan expired. The announcement comes a day after one person was killed and about two dozen others wounded as protests against Indian rule turned into violent clashes after Indian troops fired tear gas on the demonstrators. The young man who was killed had suffered pellet injuries in his head and throat while at least nine other men among the injured were hit by pellets in their eyes, medics said. File photo show an 8-year-old boy in Indian-administered Kashmir being consoled by his father who says his son was injured by pellets shot by Indian troops. ( Reuters Archive ) Army operations in India-administered Kashmir were halted on May 16 at the start of the Muslim fasting month, despite a months-long escalation of violence in the Muslim-majority Himalayan region. Troops would stop the pursuit of rebels and door-to-door house searches but would still retaliate if attacked, officials said at the time. "While the security forces have displayed exemplary restrain

Most Popular "Things are tense, and it will remain so for some time," said Mohammed Habib, a former senior leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. "Violence is possible. I am not optimistic." After six decades of misrule--beginning with the wholesale nationalization of the Egyptian economy in the 1950s and '60s by Gamal Abdel Nasser and the dispossession of minority groups, particularly the country's Jewish merchant class--Egypt is broken and exhausted. The economy, which tumbled amid the uncertainty of Mubarak's overthrow, has yet to achieve meaningful signs of recovery. The nation's infrastructure is failing and there is no money, let alone a master plan, to rebuild it. The rate of tourist arrivals, the country's most important source of hard currency, is at rock bottom, and the threat of a currency devaluation is keeping foreign investors at bay. Subsidies, some of them legacies of the Nasser era, are wasteful and biased toward industry at the expense of public goods and services. Banks choke on discarded government debt, even as small to midsize businesses--the backbone of the economy--are starved of capital. Despite a free and fair legislative election in January and an imperfect but conclusive first-round presidential ballot in May, Egypt's transition to civilian rule is far from certain. The government is administered by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which has only tightened its grip on power since Mubarak's toppling. The SCAF, already powerful economically with i

Who Is Pure And Impure In India? By Dr.Shura Darapuri 30 December, 2011 Countercurrents.org I n India, we are proud to have a woman as our President, lady Chief Ministers and quite a few women ministers, they might not have left any stone unturned in ruling the country or the state with utmost efficiency and dexterity. Yet in their own country that too in the 21st century they should not at all be surprised if they are labelled as 'impure' and denied entry into the temple called "Sabarimala" which houses a bachelor God called Ayyappa. It is situated atop a hill in Kerala, a state with highest number of literates. Kerala's high court, the highest quarters of justice in the state, not for a moment hesitated in upholding the ban in 1990 blatantly flouting the provisions given in the constitution. More than fifty years back, when the Constitution of India was framed, "Untouchables" - the lower-caste Indians, who were believed to be "impure" and hence objectionable to God - 'won' the right to equality when the gates of temples were 'instructed' to be open that earlier remained closed to them. Article 25(2b) was instituted specifically for them; to ensure that they could pursue their religion unhampered. This article gives State the power to make laws for "the throwing open of Hindu religious institutions of a public character to all classes and sections of Hindus" But it seems 'free' India is still struggling in its half hearted effort to give 'the lesser half of men' permission t

In 1930, Mahatma Gandhi and 78 followers marched 241 miles across the state of Gujarat to the sea. When he reached the coastal saltpans, Gandhi scooped up and held aloft a handful of salt -- proclaiming resistance not just to Britain's ban on the private production of salt, but to its colonial reign. In a famous photograph taken during what became immortalized as the Salt March he is shown being led by a child -- symbol of an independent India that would soon be born. Salt is a powerful symbol of purity, tradition and freedom for Indians. But today, it has come to symbolize something darker: the catastrophic consequences of adhering to tradition in the face of scientific knowledge. In a bitter irony, the traditional harvesting and marketing of salt -- a tradition whose defenders claim honors the independent spirit of Gandhi -- is threatening to blight the lives of tens of millions of Indian children. The villain is iodine deficiency, one of the world's oldest and most devastating nutrition-related health problems. Iodine deficiency disorders (IDDs) are the leading cause of mental retardation in the world. In India, 70 million people suffer from IDDs, with 200 million more at risk. A 1995 UNICEF report estimated that 900 million people around the world suffer from iodine deficiency; 5 million of them are cretins, with millions more suffering lesser mental and neurological problems. 1.6 billion people, almost a third of the global population, are at risk. Iodine deficiency caus

The last time I introduced a guy to my parents, it was my 30th birthday. I didn't even want to do this (meeting the parents is a huge deal for me), but he insisted, so I figured, why not take the next stage in our relationship if he was so interested in it? Well, a family birthday dinner means meeting my mom, my dad, and my two very overprotective older brothers -- all of whom exist pretty much without boundaries and love using swear words quite liberally. And then, there was my incredibly conservative boyfriend. How was this gonna work? And was there a way to prepare your parents to meet your partner so that it's not a complete nightmare? My oldest brother grilled my boyfriend about his past relationships, while my dad essentially implied that my boyfriend had to marry me one day. I got so stressed out and overwhelmed that I got a bloody nose at the table. It reminded my mother that I got tons of bloody noses as a child, which detoured into a roundtable of everyone sharing embarrassing stories about me growing up. Needless to say, it was not an ideal first meeting, yet my wonderful boyfriend at the time put up with everyone anyway. But it led me to wonder, has anyone ever had a flawless first introduction of their significant other to their family? Like, is there a way to do this well? I asked April Masini, relationship expert of Relationship Advice Forum , how to prepare your parents to meet your new partner so things go as smoothly as possible. 1. Try To Avoid Meeting Duri

Violence / Raids / Suppression of protests / Arrests TULKAREM (Ma'an) 31 Dec -- A Palestinian man from the northern West Bank village of Farun died Wednesday morning after he was crushed to death inside an Israeli checkpoint near Tulkarem as he was trying to get to work. Witnesses said 39-year-old Ahmad Samih Bdeir , who was on his way to a construction job inside Israel, choked to death in extreme overcrowding amid large numbers of people trying to cross the al-Tayba checkpoint , also called Shaar Efrayim. The witnesses said the crush occurred because of the extremely slow pace at which inspection procedures were carried out by the Israeli soldiers staffing the facility. The death is the second at al-Tayba this year, after 59-year-old Adel Muhammad Yakoub died in early January as a result of extreme overcrowding at the checkpoint as well. Inspection procedures at the checkpoint typically take hours as every person must pass through metal turnstiles one at a time. The turnstiles in turn are controlled by Israeli soldiers from hidden posts, and workers frequently complain about unnecessary delays caused by the soldiers staffing the checkpoints, who are typically 18- or 19-year-old conscripts finishing their compulsory military service. Following the revolving gates, there are metal detectors and inspection stations. Palestinian are often crowded into metal pens inside the checkpoints, unable to leave or enter, and Israeli soldiers rarely respond to requests for movement from t

Israel's storming of the Mavi Marmara , killing at least nine Free Gaza activists and wounding several more, was an act of jaw-gaping stupidity--strategically and tactically, even leaving aside morally. Let us stipulate that Israel's blockade of Gaza--which has been policy since 2007, when Hamas took control after winning the parliamentary elections yet kept up mortar attacks against Israeli territory--is legitimate. (It's worth noting, in this context, that Egypt has been enforcing a blockade on land, as well.) It is also certainly clear, by their own admission, that the organizers of the six-ship flotilla sailing toward Gaza intended not merely to deliver aid to Palestinians but also to challenge the blockade, a move that they had to expect might provoke a confrontation. That being the case, Israeli commanders had the right--as a matter of national security--to block the ship's passage, even by boarding it if necessary, especially if they first issued radio warnings to turn back or face consequences (as, in this instance, they did). However, as Clausewitz famously noted, war is politics by other means. A blockade is an act of war (in this case, an extension of the fact that Hamas considers itself to be at war with Israel); when it comes to wars involving Israel, any act of violence is fraught with politics in every meaning of the word. And in this sense, Israel's actions on the Mavi Marmara reflect a total disconnect between military means and political ends. Navies have be

Violence / Detentions -- West Bank, Jerusalem Palestinian teen killed, four injured in clashes near Tulkarem IMEMC/Agencies 5 Oct -- On Sunday at night , a Palestinian teen identified as Hotheifa [or Hudhayfah] Othman Suleiman , 18 years of age, died of a serious injury he suffered earlier when Israeli soldiers shot him in the abdomen, during clashes that took place near the Nitzani roadblock, west of the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem. Eyewitnesses said that residents of Bal'a village, near Tulkarem, clashed with Israeli troops at the military roadblock, located outside the village. The army fired live rounds, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas at the Palestinians, as protests continue across the West Bank and Jerusalem, against the ongoing Israeli escalation and violations. Hotheifa was injured in his chest and was moved to Thabet Thabet Hospital, where he died of his serious wounds. Surgeons performed urgent surgery in an attempt to save his life, but he succumbed to his wounds. Physicians at the hospital said four more Palestinians were also injured by live army fire, one critically, and that the hospital urgently needs blood type "O" Negative. One of the wounded Palestinians, 19 years of age, [Ma'an: Omar Jadba ] was shot with a live round in his thigh, and another Palestinian was shot in the abdomen. Six more residents were mildly injured by Israeli rubber-coated steel bullets while dozens of residents suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation. Hundreds of

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticised the Supreme Constitutional Court's decision to release journalists Can Dundar and Erdem Gul. "I do not respect this decision," he said, "and am not obliged to enforce it." This has provoked many reactions from supporters and opponents alike. The situation reflects the political polarisation witnessed in Turkey following the successive victories of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in every election it has participated in since 2002, including that held last November. A number of political parties and other opposition forces are losing hope about influencing the ruling party through the ballot box, as they have nothing left up their sleeves other than the old methods of dirty dealing, smears and resorting to external allies. The relationship between politics and media in Turkey Former Prime Minister and head of the Islamic Movement in Turkey, the late Necmettin Erbakan, was quoted as saying, "We had tried to include a general in our ranks, but now we are trying to attract a journalist." Erbakan's words hint at the importance of the "fourth estate", which has become the top estate given events in the country, but they also refer to the suffering of the politicians who entered politics by means other than those set out by the "founding government" or "deep state", such as himself, Adnan Menderes and Erdogan. So what is the nature of the relationship between the media and politics in Turkey? The media played an effective

AMY GOODMAN : As we continue our coverage, we're joined now by two guests. Here in our Firehouse studio, Norman Finkelstein, Professor of Political Science at DePaul University in Chicago. His latest book is called Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History . And on the telephone, we're joined by Josh Block, Director of Media Affairs for AIPAC -- that's the American Israel Public Affairs Committee -- speaking to us on the line from Connecticut. Josh Block, let's begin with you. Your response and the latest, the last thing that Chris McGreal said, saying human rights groups, the Palestinian leadership, Mahmoud Abbas talking about this as collective punishment and a crime against humanity. JOSH BLOCK : Well, clearly the concern is the reaction from those same folks when it comes to the murder and kidnap of Israeli citizens. From many perspective, American or otherwise, an attack inside Israel, unprovoked, that resulted in the murder of two Israelis and not the capture, Amy, but the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier is, in and of itself, an act of war. And clearly the Israelis tried for several days, 48 hours, 36 hours, of intense diplomacy with the aid of the United States, the French -- and I should add that this young man who has been kidnapped is also a French citizen -- to secure the release from Hamas, the terrorist group that has him. And by the way, in high irony, the government of the Palestinian Authority, run by the same terrorist group, s

Ran HaCohen Electronic Lebanon 16 July 2006 Israeli rescue workers investigate a train depot after a Katyusha rocket fired by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon strike killing 8 Israelis in the northern town of Haifa July 16, 2006. ( MaanImages /Moti Milrod) Just two weeks after the tragedy of an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas and taken into Gaza, history repeated itself on the Lebanese border, this time as farce. Hezbollah, the Middle East's most sophisticated guerillas, managed to capture two Israeli soldiers and take them into Lebanon. Once again it took the Israeli army almost an hour to figure out that two of its troops were missing. The soldiers must have been already "far, far away," as the charismatic Hassan Nasrallah said contemptuously, when the army took the odd decision to send a tank into Lebanon to get them. Just 70 meters north of the border fence, the Merkava - "one of the most protected tanks in the world" - drove over a powerful bomb and was completely destroyed. All four crew members were killed instantly. It then took the army more than 12 hours to extricate the wreck and recover the bodies, under heavy fire in which yet another soldier was killed, bringing the total number of Israeli casualties in the incident to eight. The strongest army in the Middle East seems unable to protect its own soldiers, let alone Israel's citizens. A sane state would send its talented chief of staff home; Israel, instead, sent him to wreak havoc in Lebanon. From Lebanon to the W

SHATI REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Mahmoud al-Qouqa can't imagine life without the three sacks of flour, cooking oil and other staples he receives from the United Nations every three months. Living with 25 relatives in a crowded home in this teeming Gaza Strip slum, the meager rations provided by UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugee families, are the last thing keeping his family afloat in the territory hard hit by years of poverty and conflict. But that could be in danger as the U.S., UNRWA's biggest donor, threatens to curtail funding. "It will be like a disaster and no one can predict what the reaction will be," al-Qouqa said. Across the Middle East, millions of people who depend on UNRWA are bracing for the worst. The expected cut could also add instability to struggling host countries already coping with spillover from other regional crises. UNRWA was established in the wake of the 1948 Mideast war surrounding Israel's creation. An estimated 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes in the fighting. In the absence of a solution for these refugees, the U.N. General Assembly has repeatedly renewed UNRWA's mandate, the original refugee camps have turned into concrete slums and more than 5 million refugees and their descendants now rely on the agency for services including education, health care and food. The largest populations are in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan and Lebanon. Seen by the Palestinians and most of the international community as pr

A Palestinian exodus from the Middle East to Europe is being predicted as tensions between refugees in Lebanon reach breaking point. Nearly two million Syrians have fled their war torn country for neighbouring Lebanon with many moving in to the already overcrowded UN camps built for Palestinian refugees. The Palestinians, barred from dozens of jobs, professions and executive positions in Lebanon beyond the camp boundaries, have eked out a hand-to-mouth existence for decades while relying on the kindness of charities, welfare institutions and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, known simply as UNRWA. Simmering frustrations in the narrow streets of the camps are palpable. There is widespread talk among the Palestinian youth that the only answer to their problems lies in the hazardous journey to Europe which has already cost the lives of many refugees from other lands. Jamal Ali told me that he has given his blessing to both his sons as they prepare to make the journey across the Mediterranean Sea. It has taken many months to help fund his boys and it will still cost much more to pay the extortionate fees of up to $20,000 demanded by people smugglers. Ali and his wife Haneen, who also have two daughters, were born in the run down Jal Al-Bahr refugee camp on the coast north of Tyre and have spent their married life there. The camp is not an official UNRWA site, but one of the many refugee "gatherings" around Lebanon; as a result, th

'For us Palestinians, trauma is the daily life.' under a Creative Commons Licence Last Wednesday, 16 July, the sands of the Gaza City beach were stained with the blood of the Baker cousins. Four young boys who ranged in age from nine to 11 years old - Mohammed, Ahed, Zakaria, and Ismail - were killed by Israeli navy shells while they were taking a break from fear by playing a game of soccer. Pictures of the killings and the families' anguish circled the internet and television news stations. People around the world were outraged. But public protest has failed to rein in Israel's Operation Protective Edge. Last night, Thursday 17 June, it unleashed a ground invasion of the Strip to add to the 10-day aerial bombardment. Gaza has responded to Israel's deadly air raids by firing rockets across the border, most of which have landed in open fields or been intercepted by the Iron Dome defence system. A handful of Israelis have been injured, and one civilian death has been reported. The number of Palestinian injuries and deaths continue to rise, disproportionately. According to Al Jazeera, at the time of writing, 265 Palestinians have been killed, at least 53 of whom are under the age of 18. The United Nations reports that of the 1770 injured or disabled, some 435 are children. Undoubtedly, many more innocent lives will be lost. Palestinian media report that civilians account for more than 80 per cent of victims since the military offensive began on 8 July. Who are these children?

Getty Image First thing's first: The 2015 NBA Draft isn't about Thursday night, or even this time next year. We won't know how this class will ultimately pan out until well into the next decade; anyone saying differently is lying, either by personal convenience or a complete lack of understanding when it comes to the evolution of basketball players. As long as that crucial context is taken into account, though, there's still room for immediate analysis when it comes to draft proceedings. These grades aren't a reflection of a prospect's talent or his fit on a new team alone, but instead some amalgam of those characteristics, one that differs depending on when individual selections were made. Some franchises deserve praise for their choices, some warrant scrutiny, and others merit something in between. Just remember, however, that these grades aren't going on a general manager's permanent record. A failing one today could be a passing one in three years' time and vice versa. They're fluid, just like the fortunes of the youngsters and teams on which they're based. Atlanta Hawks: D Picks/Trades : Traded the 15th pick to Washington for the 19th pick and a pair of future second-rounders, then dealt the 19th choice to the New York Knicks for Tim Hardaway, Jr .; Marcus Eriksson (50) The Hawks' decision to trade from No. 15 to No. 19 was one thing. It made sense for the team to pick up future assets while moving back only a few spots in a deep draft. What didn't was the decision to th

Russian lawmakers meeting with Syrian head of state Bashar al-Assad on Sunday claim he is open to holding elections that may result in his removal from power, but only after "terrorists"-a word Assad has often used as a blanket term for any Syrian opposition-are defeated. "Victory over terrorism" is required for Assad to hold elections again, Russian legislator Alexander Yushchenko told reporters after meeting with Assad in Damascus, the Associated Press reports . Sergey Gavrilov, another Russian legislator, who accompanied Yushchenko on the trip, expressed similarly that "the first aim [of Assad is 'the struggle with and victory over ... terrorism, and after that the elections-parliamentary and president elections." Gavrilov added that Assad was "ready for broad dialogue with all responsible political forces that care about Syria. He is ready for parliamentary elections, constitutional reform, presidential elections if necessary." Elections, Yushchenko quoted Assad as stating, would have to be organized "on the basis of all political forces that want Syria's prosperity." The AP notes that "the Syrian government considers the entire armed opposition to be 'terrorists,'" but did not specify whether Assad considers any opposition legitimate. Some are considering Assad's emphasis on "victory over terrorism" before elections as a sign that he would like all opposition to his rule eliminated before being up for reelection again. CBS News ran the AP story with the headline " Syria

A few days ago I covered the testimony of an Israeli soldier witnessing the Dawaymeh massacre at the end of October 1948. Haaretz had published the letter in full for the first time, in an article by Israeli historian Yair Auron. A reader, Richard Lightbown, subsequently contacted Mondoweiss with a citation to a contemporary UN report on the massacre (by the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine Technical Committee). I checked with the UN Dag Hammerskjold Library, which confirmed the authenticity of the report and referred me to an electronic version (here). (The original link to a PDF scan is temporarily broken). Once again, we speak of a document on this massacre where the contents have been publicized before in excerpt by others. Whilst we are thus not speaking of a letter which sees full daylight for the first time, this is still a document which probably few have read in full. In light of the focus on Dawaymeh (also spelled Dawayima), as a follow-up - this is another angle of the massacre. This letter regards sworn testimony by the village Mukhtar (leader) Hassan Mahmoud Ihdeib , who cites the massacre victims to be at least 145 in two main locations - the mosque (60) and the nearby cave Iraq El Zagh (85) - plus a large number of bodies in the street. This corresponds with historian Benny Morris's assessment of 'hundreds'. It is important to note here that testimonies vary, and can be a partial view; the Mukhtar came back to the village only a day later. Historian

In another place and another time, perhaps the only thing that would matter is this: that four men are dead, for no very good reason, and at least 11 others are fighting for their lives in hospital. In another place and another time, it would matter that the very same morning, an eminent cardiologist was shot while taking a walk, losing his eyesight--and the two men tasked with guarding him, their lives. It ought not matter what their faith was, or their cause. In this place and time in Jammu and Kashmir, though, those are the only questions that matter. Ever since Thursday morning's killings of protestors near the small Jammu-region mountain town of Gool, the fragile peace the state has seen since 2010 has been put to the test. In Kashmir, across the Pir Panjal mountains, police have had to impose curfew in key cities and towns. This has nothing to do with terrorism: violence in Jammu and Kashmir is at the lowest level since 2002, and police in Gool haven't reported a single terrorism-related incident in over two years. The violence, instead, that tells us something about the deep cultural and political dysfunctions that have survived the death of the two-decade long jihad Jammu and Kashmir. From the multiple stories emerging on Thursday morning's killings, it's hard to say for certain just what happened. Jammu and Kashmir's minister of state for home, Sajjad Ahmad Kitchloo, said the riots began after BSF personnel walked into a mosque with their shoes on. Protests in the s

The recent military advances of the Assad regime in Syria may not bring peace and stability in the country, as the regime has no political roadmap to address the basic questions raised in 2011 -when popular protests were brutally cracked down. Perhaps Syria may descend into a worse state than the Libyan model of crisis, that too without Nato intervention. The pessimistic scenario creates many reasons to disbelieve the claims of Assad regime's victories. In Libya, factions had declared their rival states - which eventually were forced to sit on the table and declare a unity government. Ever since the peace process started, civilian casualties have declined and rival factions have stayed within their territories without challenging each other much. Bashar al-Assad. AP image For generating a dialogue, there is a roadmap according to which both sides have agreed to negotiate. The Syrian peace process has nothing in common with the Libyan crisis despite the fact that Libya has descended into complete chaos. In Yemen, despite excessive use of force by the Arab alliance - apparently to restore the legitimate elected president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi - the Arab intervention as well as the GCC mediation enjoyed greater international and regional support including that from the United Nations Security Council. Syria has divided the world in three almost irreconcilable camps - Russia led Assad alliance, Saudi-Turkey supported National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition For

Most Popular On the nonproliferation side, the US-India civilian nuclear trade agreement is thought to be enhancing India's ability to concentrate on weapons development. It is often forgotten, in the light of Pakistan's dangerous nuclear program, that India started the South Asian atomic arms race in 1974, with a bomb test under the government of Indira Gandhi. India then detonated up to five more explosions in 1998, prompting Pakistan to follow suit with its first nuclear weapons tests the same year. Neither country is open to inspection of its weapons facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency, though civilian reactors are supposed to be monitored in India according to the terms of the US agreement. In July 2013, with the US-India nuclear deal stalled for American companies over the liability issue and many other questions still unanswered, the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington published a study that raised another flag. The report, Future World of Illicit Nuclear Trade: Mitigating the Threat--written by David Albright, the institute's president, Andrea Stricker and Houston Wood--named India, Pakistan, Iran and North Korea among countries actively procuring material abroad to maintain their nuclear arsenals. "India, on one hand, seeks parts, equipment and technology for its civilian nuclear power program, an effort facilitated by the 2008 US-India agreement on civilian nuclear trade, while at the same time engaging in illicit activiti

Three years after Arundhati Roy published her first book, The God of Small Things , she cut off all her hair. The novel won the Booker Prize in 1997 and Roy had been hailed as a voice of an emerging nation, a literary heroine with a beautiful face, an Indian writer able to define the post-colonial imagination. Her own country revelled in her success - here was a photogenic ambassador for modern India, superpower of the future. Knowing Roy as we do now, her reaction to the adulation seems predictable. She is a natural rebel, disdainful of mainstream popularity. There could be no way more visible to demonstrate her contempt than shearing off her long, dark hair. As she told the New York Times in 2001, she didn't want to be known as "some pretty lady who wrote a book". Roy has not published any fiction since The God of Small Things , much to the impatience of the six million people who bought that book (and, you imagine, her agent David Godwin). Over the past 14 years, she has instead devoted her energy to India's most urgent political challenges: nuclear tests, dams, Kashmir, Hindu nationalism, terrorism, the emergence of a super-wealthy elite and the 800 million citizens who still live on less than Rs20 (30p) a day. Roy's version of India is uncompromising. The country, she says, is in "a genocidal situation, turning upon itself, colonising the lower sections of society who have to pay the price for this shining India". Its leaders are "such poor men because they have no idea

By Gladson Dungdung 19 May, 2016 Countercurrents.org S ince 2013, I have been travelling abroad to speak on Adivasi issues in different forums. I talkabout ourrights, need to conserve the natural resources and protection of ecology of the country.Consequently, I'm under the surveillance of the State as I raise uncomfortable questions frequently. In October 2013, my passport was impounded on the basis of "adverse police report" due to my involvement in the people's movements against forceful land acquisition and disclosure of gross human rights violation of Adivasis in the counter insurgency in the so-called Red Corridor of India. However, after my special request to the top police officers of Jharkhand for proper verification of the passport, it was restored in July 2014. Thereafter, I attended a couple of conferences in Denmark and the UK. Last, November, I travelled to London following the release of my book, Mission Saranda: A War for Natural Resources in India. This May, I was scheduled to attend a workshop on the environmental politics of South Asia at the University of Sussex, UK. Unfortunately, this became a nightmare for me. On May 9, after check-in, I collected the boarding card and went to immigration counter. I submitted the immigration form along with the passport and boarding card to the immigration officer. At the beginning, the immigration officer talked to me nicely but later it was inconvenient.After asking general questions, he also asked me whether I'm a st

Overview of Kalandia checkpoint and the wall separating Ramallah from northern areas of Jerusalem. (Arjan El Fassed) The general segment of the substantive session of the Economic and Social Council continued today with consideration of the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, and the economic and social repercussions of the Israeli occupation on the living conditions of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan. The Council had before it a report of the President of the Council on consultations held with the Chairman of the Special Committee on the situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (document e/2004/47), which describes support to Non-Self Governing Territories by the specialized agencies and the international institutions associated with the United Nations. The Council also had the Secretary-General's report on the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples by the specialized agencies and the international institutions associated with the United Nations (document A/59/64), which contains a list of specialized agencies and international institutions associated with the United Nations to which the provisions of Assembly resolution 58/104 apply and to whose attention the Se

The massive, gray concrete elements of Israel's under-construction "security" wall tower over the fields and a handful of sheds on the outskirts of the West Bank town of Qalqiliya. A segment some 500 meters long snakes around the western edge of the Palestinian area and blots out the clear blue sky for the unfortunate residents of the nearest apartment buildings. The 28-foot-high wall will cover a stretch of two kilometers around Qalqiliya, a town of some 80,000 people that juts sharply out into Israel's narrow "waist." A soon-to-be-opened toll road, Israel's first, closely follows the pre-1967 border, the so-called Green Line, at this point; the authorities say the wall is necessary to protect it against shooting attacks from Qalqiliya. In the end, this section will make up only a fraction of the planned 80-mile barrier along the northern West Bank. "Sometimes I talk to the Palestinian farmers in the fields," says Erez Rubinstein, the project manager for the mile-plus stretch, "and they complain that they will not be able to see the sunset anymore because of the wall." Rubinstein has been working on the site for more than two months. Despite the generous fee his construction company gets for the job, he wishes he were doing something else. He's talking not only about the danger, although snipers from the Palestinian side have targeted the construction crew several times. Like many Israelis, Rubinstein wishes the wall wasn't necessary, but sees it as the only option left. "Wh

Death is, of course, major, indeed fundamental, part of war. No revolutionary struggle worthy of the name can be fought, and certainly not won, without a tremendous degree of sacrifice in which humanity's most precious sons and daughters often live for what only seems like a flash. The young are the ones to not only make revolution, but to carry the burden of often not living to see it made. Their moment in history in terms of years spent on the earth seems even more insignificant than those who live "full lives" of 80 or 90 years. Yet, their often exceptionally brief time on this planet - because of their ultimate sacrifice - manifests in deaths that, to echo what Mao Zedong once said, are heavier that Mount Thai in contrast to the reactionaries whose deaths are lighter than feathers. Kurdish culture is one in which mountains have a key significance, so the idea of the Chinese revolutionary conveyed more than half a century ago is one that I'm certain has some degree of relevance for a modern revolutionary struggle half way across the world. It is often said, after all, that Kurds have no friends except these mountains. The number of young warriors who are taken from this world at an appallingly young age in conflict is almost impossible to conceive of in the contexts of the relative comfort of western society today. The struggles of the 20th century bare out just how much blood had to be spilled onto the battlefields of Asian, Africa and Latin America in struggles that were

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com Turkey announces major military operation in Syria's Idlib province Turkey's success in Idlib is far from certain Turkey announces major military operation in Syria's Idlib province Idlib Syria today (AFP) Turkey announced that it is beginning a military operation in Syria's Idlib province. It will follow the terms of an agreement made in Astana, Kazakhstan by Turkey, Russia, and Iran to create four "de-escalation" zones in Syria with the objective of ending the war. Turkey's military operations will be in the Idlib de-escalation zone, which includes Idlib, Latakia, Aleppo and Hama, and is bordered by Homs and Turkey itself. The purpose of the operation will be to eliminate the al-Qaeda linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). However, Turkey has an additional objective: To prevent the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), currently controlling the city of Afrin north of Idlib near Turkey's border, from entering Idlib and thereby controlling a corridor in northern Syria along Turkey's border. The terms of the operation are as follows: The ground troops will be from the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which are moderate rebel militias opposed to Syria's president Bashar al-Assad, and under Turkey's protection. Turkey's army will support the FSA on the ground with artillery strikes. Turkey may send its own troops into Idlib to fight alongside the FSA. In fact, Turkey has been massing tanks and special forces troops along the borde

By Nirmalya Deb 03 November, 2015 Countercurrents.org T here is a skewed notion in liberal circles about the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) being a Hindu party championing the cause of Hinduism and the Hindu way of life. Nothing can be as remote from the truth as this belief is. Political, and by the same token, electoral opportunism has nothing to do with faith, belief or ideology. One senior BJP leader told The Telegraph, October 9 that now that Lalu Yadav has painted himself into a corner with his remark that Hindus too eat beef it is time for the BJP to launch a crusade to assuage hurt Hindu feelings. Hindu feelings have been accorded primacy in four Indian states where beef is presently banned. Hurt Hindus can't stand the sight of an innocent man in western Uttar Pradesh supposed to have had a beef lunch or a Kashmir MLA who was roughed up for hosting a beef party in his hostel or the hapless truck driver in Jammu whose vehicle was set afire October 10 on the suspicion of ferrying beef. Hindu assertiveness as manifested in BJP's cow politics is a lethal instrument of electoral polarization. But what is this Hindu identity after all? Hinduism is a religion but it is also a historical area of study and academic activity. Historical truths are not the whims and fancies of a majority community and cannot be thrust down the throats of a malleable citizenry no matter how big the campaign is. Research has proved the incontrovertible fact that there is ample evidence in the Vedic

An Israeli magistrate court suspended the eviction of the Shamasna family in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem on Thursday, after the family refused to leave their home of 53 years amid claims that it was the property of Israeli settlers. During a court session to consider an appeal presented by the family's lawyer Said Ghaliyeh, the court ruled to suspend the eviction order, after challenges were presented by Ghaliyeh on the lack of documentation of the plots of lands in the neighborhood on the municipal level. In order for the eviction order to be enforced, the courts must determine exactly which land was owned by Jews before 1948 based on land documentation records. According to Israeli law, Jewish Israelis are permitted to claim ownership over property believed to have been owned by Jews before 1948 during Ottoman or British rule. However, such a law does not exist for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees who were displaced from their lands and homes during and after the establishment of the state of Israel. "How do you see the future of this city?" "Jews only!" Welcome to our new illegal settlement in Palestinian Hebron https://t.co/5MZmNtIt71 pic.twitter.com/EiGI2hAd1U -- Breaking the Silence (@BtSIsrael) August 18, 2017 Israelis have claimed that Sheikh Jarrah was once the site of a 19th century Jewish community. Many families in the neighborhood have been embroiled in legal disputes for decades, as various Israeli settlers have att

Pacifying Palestinians and Pacifying the World Richard Falk Middle East , Reviews May 29, 2016 Photo by Peter Mulligan Jeff Halper is an unusual hybrid presence on both the scholarly and political scene. He describes himself as an "activist-scholar" (6), which adopts a controversial self-identification. The conventional stance erects a high wall between scholarship and activism. To his credit and for our benefit, Halper excels almost equally in both roles. He is one of the most lucid speakers on the lecture circuit combining clarity with wisdom and a rich fund of information and firsthand experience, and his work as a writer is influential and widely known. His activist credentials have been built up over many years, especially in his work as co-founder and leader of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, which has bravely confronted Israeli demolition crews and IDF soldiers, helped Palestinians on multiple occasions to rebuild their destroyed homes, thereby responding humanely to one of Israel's cruelest occupation practices, an instance of unlawful collective punishment. Halper has estimated that less than 2% of demolitions can lay claim to a credible security justification (the respected Israeli human rights NGO, B'Tselem, estimates 1.3% of demolitions are justified by security, while the rest are punitive or 621 of 47,000 since 1967). As an author his main prior book makes an unsurprisingly strong pitch for activism as the most reliable foundation for analys

Despite the absurdity of their stance, the left continues to brandish the "pinkwashing" charge at the pro-Israel community. But a front-page feature in yesterday's New York Times illustrates not only the stark reality of what happens to gays in Islamist countries but also gives readers some keen insight into how a Palestinian state operates. The piece concerns the fate of Mahmoud Ishtiwi, a Hamas commander and a member of a prominent Gaza family with deep ties to the Islamist terrorist movement. In the summer of 2014, he was in charge of 1,000 Hamas fighters as well as a network of tunnels that were employed for attempts to cross into Israel to kidnap and murder citizens of the Jewish state. But last month Hamas executed him on charges of homosexuality. As the Times notes, there is nothing unusual about Hamas slaughtering one of its own. It happens all the time as the terrorist organization conducts purges and/or attempt to ferret out those it suspects of betraying their secrets to either Israel or their Fatah Party rivals that run the West Bank. But what was unusual was the willingness of the Ishtiwi clan to complain publicly about his treatment. During the course of a year's imprisonment, Ishtiwi told his family that he had only confessed to crimes after having been repeatedly tortured. But rather than merely accept his fate or disown him, his family demanded inquiries and appealed to the head of Hamas for his release. But their entreaties fell on deaf ears, and Ishtiwi's b

In a sign of escalating tensions, Russia and Turkey have begun accusing each other of supporting "terrorist" organizations in Syria. On Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement denouncing Turkey's weekend artillery attacks on Kurdish and Syrian regime positions. "Many civilians have been killed or wounded in these raids, and infrastructure and residential buildings have been damaged," the Russians alleged. Additionally, Russia claimed that Turkey "continued to facilitate the illegal crossing of Jihadists and armed mercenaries into Syria to reinforce the seriously battered Jabhat al-Nusra, ISIS and other terrorist groups." The statement also said injured jihadi fighters are "allowed to enter Turkey for rehabilitation and subsequent regrouping." The Russian Foreign Ministry laid its terrorism allegations on thick in the concluding paragraphs, backing Syrian government demands that the United Nations halt "continued Turkish provocations" and that "countries backing terrorism, including Turkey, be compelled to comply with anti-terrorism resolutions and cease without delay all their financial assistance to terrorists." The Russians declared Turkey's actions constituted "direct support for international terrorism," in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, and said Turkey's policies were "threatening peace and security in the Middle East and beyond it." Ominously, the Russians declared support for their clients in Syria to "respond to Turkey's aggression." A

A sturdy new fence, surveillance sensors, and troop deployments along the Israeli side of the 65-mile border reflect concern in the Jewish state about the spillover from Syria's civil war and what comes after the expected downfall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Errant fire from Syria has already crossed into Israeli territory several times, prompting Israel to fire back once. "Things can change dramatically in hours," says Kobi Marom, a resident of the Golan Heights ski village, Neve Ativ, and reserve Army colonel, as he surveys the valley. "We are trying to be prepared for a new situation in the region." After two years of watching the Syrian conflict from the sidelines, the hostilities seem to have arrived at Israel's doorstep. Syrian rebels are fighting to wrest control of the border from the Syrian Army, and there's an increasing fear that militant groups on both sides of the civil war will get their hands on the country's advanced weapons arsenal and set their sites on Israel next. That presents a quandry for Israeli officials: Can they protect the country without getting sucked in to Syria's violence? TREADING A VERY THIN LINE Analysts say that balancing between the two will be increasingly difficult if the central authority continues to crumble in Syria and multiple power centers emerge in the countrywide war. But some Israeli officials and security analysts see an upside to the chaos. The fall of Mr. Assad could be a strategic boost for Israel because it would s

The following piece is a slightly modified version of a talk I gave on 2/13/15 the Palestine Center in Washington, DC. The talk was titled "Natural History Under Siege." The geography is dry and withered, humid and verdant, rugged and restful--a cacophony, but also an ensemble. It is a panorama of glorious, incessant contradiction. But not everybody can see it. For many, it is a simulation of ideology, a diversion into mythic cultural adventure, an insatiable geopolitical headache, an inaccessible aspiration, or an unsolved mystery. For the apostate and pious alike, it is always in some way holy. It will never be decolonized unless it is first demythologized. Settlement and myth are symbiotic. Despite its continuous reinvention, we can still speak of Palestine as an actual place, with geologic formations and a climate classification and an observable ecosystem. Those phenomena undergo actual change. Humans physically experience their alteration. Flora live and die by them. Fauna migrate and immigrate to unnatural places. The cultural history of Palestine's landscape is also observable. I've heard many Palestinians note the visual similarities between their homeland and Los Angeles. Those similarities aren't an accident. Palm trees are ubiquitous to LA, but none of them is indigenous to the city's territory. They are an import from Mexico and North Africa to coastal southern California. Early settlers wanted to brand the region. (It explains a lot about the

Violence / Detentions -- West Bank / Jerusalem In rare twist, Palestinian man rescues wounded Israelis RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) 5 July -- Just a few years ago, Islam al-Bayed spent seven months in an Israeli prison for allegedly throwing stones at Israeli troops. Now, the 26-year-old Palestinian man has become an unlikely symbol of tolerance after rescuing an Israeli family whose car crashed following a deadly roadside shooting by Palestinian militants in the West Bank. Last week's shooting, along with the fatal stabbing of an Israeli girl as she slept in her bed, have ratcheted up tensions in the southern West Bank. Israel has responded by imposing a closure around the city of Hebron and beefed up its troop presence in the volatile area. But al-Bayed, a private security guard who lives in the al-Fawwar refugee camp near Hebron, says his actions last Friday transcended politics. "This was a very human moment. I didn't think of the occupation or the conflict. I thought only of human beings, children who needed my help," he said in an interview. With over 300,000 Jewish settlers now living in the West Bank, contact between Israelis and the area's 2.5 million Palestinians is inevitable. But it usually takes place at Israeli military checkpoints or in Israeli-owned factories that employ Palestinian menial laborers. One of the few areas of cooperation is in the medical profession -- usually with Israeli hospitals treating Palestinians wounded in conflict. Al-Bayed said he was driv

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, embraces Syrian President Bashar Assad in the Bocharov Ruchei residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia?--?Nov. 20, 2017 (Mikhail Klimentyev, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) As the war in Syria winds down, negotiations began last week to attempt to end the war outright. Stefan de Misrata, the chief UN negotiator, convened what will be the eighth round of talks in Geneva. Previous rounds have yielded few results, as warring sides refused to even come to the table. Opposition rebel groups have insisted that there can be no resolution without the removal of President Bashar Al-Assad. There is little chance of this happening. On Friday, the government delegation walked out of talks over the opposition's refusal to drop its insistence on Assad's removal. While Mr. de Misrata has said that negotiations will continue until December 15th, focusing on drafting a new constitution and a plan for elections , no solution will be viable without the other side returning. As government forces shore up control of most of their territory, and the last remaining remnants of Islamic State are destroyed, Assad will be all the more intractable to retain his position. In his mind, this war was one for his own survival, and he has just about won it. With Russian help, government forces have been stepping up attacks to hammer this point home. There has been a nominal step in the right direction already, with an agreement for a ceasefire in the contested Eas

T he use of assassination raises two difficult sets of questions. First: Is it effective? Can the elimination of an individual significantly change the course of history? Make the world a safer place? Save the lives of other human beings? Second: Is it morally and legally justified? Is it ethically and judicially legitimate for a country to employ the gravest of all crimes in any code of ethics or law -- the premeditated taking of a human life -- in order to protect its own citizens? Since World War II, Israel has assassinated more people than any other country in the Western world. Israel's vast experience in this arena thus has much to teach us. And indeed, a careful look at the history of Israel's targeted killings shows us that the use of assassination as a weapon is effective when it is part of an organized, comprehensive, and sustained campaign based on quality intelligence, and when the security forces are capable of dealing with countermeasures taken by the enemy. For example, the series of hits after the 1972 Munich Olympic Games made the PLO stop its terrorist attacks outside the Middle East and caused heavy operational damage and plummeting morale inside the organization. Moreover, the targeted killings carried out during the Second Intifada succeeded, for the first time in history, at defeating something that had once been considered indestructible: suicide terrorism. Those assassinations proved that continuous, routine strikes at the operational level -- the co

Jerusalem mayor warns against settlement demolition AFP 7 Nov -- Jerusalem's Israeli mayor Nir Barkat has warned that Palestinian homes built without an Israeli permit in the city's annexed east could be demolished if authorities dismantle a wildcat Jewish settlement. Barkat was reacting to a ruling by Israel's Supreme Court ordering the evacuation and demolition by December 25 of the Amona outpost, where around 40 families are living on private Palestinian-owned land near the West Bank city of Ramallah. His comments came in a letter addressed to the government's legal council -- seen Monday by AFP -- in which he says the demolition of Amona "could have implications for similar cases in Jerusalem, where Arabs have illegally built on private or municipal land". "There should not be one law for Jews and another for Arabs," wrote Barkat, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling right-wing Likud party. Ir Amim, an Israeli NGO opposed to Israeli settlements in east Jerusalem, where more than 200,000 Israelis now live, denounced the mayor's comments. "These are outrageous remarks by someone trying to promote his political career on the backs of the people of Jerusalem," Ir Amim head Yehudit Oppenheimer told AFP ... "Since the start of the year, 166 illegally built Palestinian structures in east Jerusalem have been demolished by the authorities, twice the figure in the same period last year," she added. NGOs say many Palestinians are forced to build illegally because I

March 1993: Bombay bombings; 259 killed. December 2000: Terrorist attack on Red Fort; 3 killed. December 2001: Parliament attack, New Delhi; 7 killed. November 2008: Mumbai attacks: 171 killed. This list is not final. Far from it. There are many deadly blast incidents that occurred across the country before and after 2000. But with the start of the 21st Century, communal terrorism escalated and became more frequent. The worst period was between 2003 and 2008 when 28 major cases of bombings occurred across the country. There was a gradual shift in the modus operandi, use of arms and ammunitions, and the main players in the game. "There had been a major escalation in terror incidents in 2007 and 2008, outside Jammu and Kashmir due to a strong Pakistani push to take terror outside the state to other parts of India. The objective was to show the emergence of indigenous terrorism (not Pakistan-backed) in the country," says strategic expert Ajai Sahni. The Taj Mahal hotel during the 26/11 siege. IBNLive The dream of having a Global Islamic Caliphate made terror outfits more focussed and ideologically-driven. The Indian subcontinent became an important target as jihadists invoked the Hadith (an oral tradition attributed to Prophet Mohammed) that a great battle (final battle) would be fought in India ( Ghazwa-e-Hind) between true believers and unbelievers before the end times. This they believe would lead to the ultimate formation of Islamic Caliphate. The shift Prior to 2000,

Indira Dyal Dominguez has recently published a book called, " You: A Spiritual Being On A Spiritual Journey ." To find out more about Indira, I interviewed her. I hope Beliefnet readers enjoy her answers and lessons. Where do you come from? I was born in Guyana, South America of East Indian background. I have lived most of my life in the United States and have travelled and lived in many different places - they include Puerto Rico, Egypt, Turkey, Delphi Greece, Spain, Italy, and many of the Caribbean Islands. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what inspired you to do this work? The inner quest to know 'Who am I ' and 'Why am I here' was a loud and powerful vibration that shaped my relationship and experience of life since I was a child. Life around me seemed strange for it made no sense. To be in life for what occurred as just living life, always resonated as 'not what it's about'. This strong inner knowing and quest prevailed into my teen and young adult years. This led me to many forms of seeking - from my Catholic upbringing to ashrams, rebirthing, reading and exploring many different disciplines including the field of personal transformation. This inner drive was at the forefront of my existence. Nothing took priority over this 'knowing' that my being here was for something distinct from life around me - what I now call the "current paradigm'. And so, I found myself fifteen years ago sitting with no where to go for I had exhausted all of what made sense to pu

Hamas fighters in Gaza (Photo: MEMO) While Palestinian owners are forced out, settlers celebrate stealing their family home. (Photo: Social Media) Human rights organization Amnesty International has condemned Israeli forces for multiple violent raids into an occupied East Jerusalem hospital, which has been struggling to treat hundreds of Palestinians who have been injured by Israeli forces in recent days in a brutal crackdown on demonstrations surrounding the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. In the span of ten days, Israelis killed four Palestinian demonstrators and injured more than 1,000 others, in protests against new Israeli security measures put in place at the holy site following a deadly shooting there on July 14. Israeli forces stormed al-Makassed hospital at least twice over the past week in an attempt to detain the same protesters they had critically injured. Israeli police and border police soldiers have been "terrifying staff and patients and in some cases preventing doctors from providing emergency medical care to critically injured patients," Amnesty International wrote in a statement on Tuesday. "The conduct of Israeli forces who carried out violent raids on al-Makassed hospital harassing and intimidating staff and patients is utterly deplorable. There can be no justification for preventing medical workers from caring for a critically wounded patient," the statement quoted Magdalena Mughrabi, Amnesty's regional deputy director, as saying. The israel neo-nazism in displ

The Syrian events are a challenge for both left wing party people and revolutionaries. Part of the confusion, however, is related to matters of definition, choice of words and what they mean. One such word is 'revolution'. Does it apply? And if so, what does that mean? The Syrian events are a challenge for both left wing party people and revolutionaries. I addressed some of the arguments in my recent blog series. Part of the confusion is related to how the facts are seen: how much Western interference is going on, and how much influence does it have on the battlefield and ont the likely political outcome? How influential are Islamist groups, how strong is the sectarian dynamics? These are matters of fact-finding and evalyation. Part of the confusion, however, is related to matters of definition, choice of words and what they mean. One such word is 'revolution'. Left wing supporters of intervention on the rebels' side end to see the Syrian revolt as a revolution deserving victory and hencorth assistence.. The same applies to those who reject intervention but cheer the revolt with rather less criticism that important aspects of it deserve. Those, however, who reject both the regime and the resistance fighters - FSA and others - often reject the label 'revolution' as well. As for myself, I tend to call events like these a form of revolution, although I am much more careful with that word. Still, there remains a sense wherin calling the events a 'Syrian revolution' makes some sen

History moves forward, and it would be a fatal mistake to move in the opposite direction. The people's resistance of colonisation, oppression, injustice, occupation, slavery and the violation of human dignity are all matters that align with this natural path. Therefore, the relationship of colonised and oppressed nations with colonisation is a relationship of rejection, resistance and boycott via all available means and methods, not a relationship of co-existence and compromise. The current popular uprising erupted, just as the Al-Aqsa Intifada erupted in 2000, as a reflection of the contradiction between the coloniser and the colonised and a frank reaction to the failure of the negotiations. This opened the door to re-aligning the path and clarifying the vision. It is sad that this uprising, which has continued for five months, with no sign of letting up any time soon, still has not found any local, Arab, or international party to back it politically, socially, in the media or financially. There is no one who is pushing it towards becoming a major popular uprising and arming it with political goals and visions that eliminate the past phase, along with its figures and failed policies. We urgently need to turn this uprising and phenomenon of stabbings, hit-and-runs and lone-wolf operations into a new type of popular intifada; a new intifada that is different to the first and second intifada, given the difference of the generation that came after the Oslo Accords who sparked th

Islamic State Plane Attack Claim Could Be Helpful Today a Russian civil airliner came down over the Sinai peninsula. All 224 on board of the Airbus A-320 were killed. The Islamic State in Sinai claims to have "brought down" the plane. That is unlikely. According to flight radar data the plane was flying at 30,000 feet when whatever happened occurred. IS in Sinai has anti-air weapons but those reach no higher than 10,000 feet. It is in principle possible that IS infiltrated the airport at the Egyptian tourist resort Sharm el-Sheikh where the plane was was coming from and smuggled someone on board. But it is unlikely. The usual travel arrangements for Sharm el-Sheikh are group travels where anyone not belonging to a group would be suspicious. Security at Sharm el-Sheikh is usually tight. There is also a report that preliminary investigations point to a technical failure. But IS claimed responsibility and the fact that it did can be used. How about a salvo of cruise missile on "IS targets" in Syria and Iraq? No one could really complain now if some of those cruise missiles hit IS ... or something else ... But whatever. That IS claims to have taken down an airliner shows that it has intent to do such. That is then the end of stupid arguments to work with IS or to let it live and prosper. The claim will also the end to any attempt to give serious air defense weapons to "insurgents" in Syria. The weapons could easily end up in al-Qaeda or IS hands and it is now clear what they woul

When India became independent, the civilian leadership under Jawaharlal Nehru had ensured that the country's army did not ever become a part of the political discourse. When India's first army chief K M Kariappa had publicly criticised the government over India's economic performance, he was reprimanded and told not to give opinions on matters that did not lie within his ambit. Even the commander-in-chief's position was detached from political decision-making and even abolished after independence. Traditionally, the leadership of the Indian Army was never seen making public appearances and remarks and remained a subject of public adulation for their unflinching commitment to the nation and its people - be in times of external or internal crisis. But Narendra Modi's times are different, even when it comes to the army. Now, as the army is being hero-worshipped more and more, that institution is increasingly losing its glorious isolation and even coming in close contacts with the political orbit. When India became independent, the civilian leadership under Jawaharlal Nehru had ensured that the country's army did not ever become a part of the political discourse. When India's first army chief K M Kariappa had publicly criticised the government over India's economic performance, he was reprimanded and told not to give opinions on matters that did not lie within his ambit. Even the commander-in-chief's position was detached from political decision-making and even abolished after in

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) and the National Council for Population has issued a breakdown of the Palestinian population for World Population Day. The estimated population in Palestine as of mid-2017 is 4.95 million Based on estimates prepared by the PCBS, which were reached in accordance with the results of the general census of the population, housing units and establishments in 2007, the estimated population in Palestine as of mid-2017 is approximately 4.95 million. Of this 2.52 million are male and 2.43 million are female. The estimated population in the West Bank is about 3.01 million, including 1.53 million males and 1.48 females, while the population in Gaza is estimated to be over 2 million, including approximately 988,000 males and 956,000 females. The Palestinian community in the Gaza Strip is younger than in the West Bank As of mid-2017 children of 14-years-old and below make up 38.9 per cent of the total population in Palestine with 36.6 per cent in the West Bank and 42.6 per cent in the Gaza Strip. The number of Palestinians who are 65-years-old and over has dropped. They make up an estimated 2.9 per cent of Palestinians with 3.3 per cent in the West Bank and 2.4 per cent in the Gaza Strip. Image of Palestinian children on 20 November, 2016 in Gaza City, Gaza [Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency] High population density in the Gaza Strip The population density in Palestine is high in general, particularly in the Gaza Strip. The estimated populatio

Developments in the Middle East, especially in Syria, have reached a critical point. The conflict between Russia and the West is being used by their regional partners, and the cycle of violence has become nearly uncontrollable. The international community can no longer watch as the region's states destroy themselves, creating waves of refugees and a humanitarian disaster on such a scale that it disfigures humanity's very consciousness. Amidst all this chaos, a terrorist internationale with a foothold in Syria and Iraq has launched an all-out war against modern civilization. The so-called Islamic State has claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks in the Sinai, in Iraq, Lebanon, and Paris. If, two or three years ago, the Middle East was thought of as a zone of regional unrest, then today its new hotbeds of terrorism and religious hatred create security risks for the entire world. In these circumstances, Russia's direct military involvement in the Syrian crisis and its calls for forming a broader anti-terrorist coalition should really give impetus to coordinating an international effort, in one form or another, and to establishing common ground with the United States on this basis. But it might have the opposite effect. It might bring about even more distrust and distance. The cost of errors at this stage is enormously high. And whether Russia and the US become allies in the fight against a shared threat from militant Islamism, or rivals pursuing their own ambitions, depends

Smoke and flames rise into the air after Israeli air strikes targeted points, reported to belong to Hamas, in Ez-Zeitoun town south of Gaza City, Gaza on July 20, 2018 [Ali Jadallah / Anadolu Agency] Smoke and flames rise into the air after Israeli air strikes hit Gaza City, Gaza on 20 July 2018 [Ali Jadallah / Anadolu Agency] 11:09pm BST Israel and Hamas have agreed to restore calm in the Gaza Strip, according to a spokesman for Hamas. "With Egyptian and United Nations efforts it has been agreed to return to the era of calm between [Israel] and Palestinian factions," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told Reuters . Egyptian security officials and a diplomat from another unnamed state were holding contacts with Hamas and Israel in an effort to restore calm and prevent further deterioration, an unnamed Palestinian official told Reuters . Gaza was relatively quiet after midnight (local time), residents said. The Palestinian official said: "Egypt has managed to restore calm through talks with the two sides in Israel and in Gaza ... We hope it lasts." 10:34pm BST Hamas issued a statement holding the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the consequences of its latest attack on the Gaza Strip. A spokesman for the movement Fawzi Barhoum said: "The Palestinian resistance's retaliation is internationally guaranteed and is carried out for one purpose; to defend the people of Gaza." "It's also the resistance's national duty to deter the Israeli occupation from imposing its own rules of

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) -- Florida's gun and mental health laws likely could not have prevented school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz from buying last year the semi-automatic rifle authorities say he used to kill 17 people even if they had applied to him, the state commission investigating the shooting learned Thursday. Robin Sparkman, chief of the state's Firearm Eligibility Bureau, told the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission that even if Cruz had been subjected to an involuntary, three-day mental health evaluation under a state law called the Baker Act, he still could have bought the AR-15 allegedly used in the Feb. 14 massacre. Under state law before the shooting, only if Cruz, 19, had been adjudicated mentally ill by a judge or convicted of a felony would he have been ineligible to buy a gun. Cruz was never committed under the Baker Act, convicted of a crime or adjudicated mentally ill. "So many people think the Baker Act is a magic wand -- that the Baker Act cures and fixes all. The Baker Act doesn't," said Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, the commission's chairman. "The Baker Act is a temporary custody status for assessment. Rarely does the Baker Act result in any treatment. People think that if Cruz had been Baker Acted that this wouldn't have happened. That is flat-out erroneous." Under the Baker Act, Florida can involuntarily commit a person for a mental health evaluation for up to 72 hours -- about 192,000 such commitments were made last y

Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails The number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons and detention centres has reached 4,750 people from every sector of Palestinian society. The majority (82.5 per cent) are residents of the West Bank, 9.6 per cent are from the Gaza Strip, and the rest are from Jerusalem and those living in the areas of Palestine occupied in 1948 now known as Israel. They are spread around 17 prisons and detention centres, the most well-known of which are Al-Naqab, Ofer, Nafha, Gilbo'a, Shata, Ramon, Askalan, Hadarim, Eshel, Ohalei Kedar, HaSharon, Ramla and Megiddo. Of the total, 186 are in "administrative detention" without charge and 13 are women, the oldest of which is Lina Al-Jarbouni from the 1948 occupied territories, who has been in jail for 11 years. Moreover, there are 198 children under the age 18, 25 of whom are under the age of 16, as well as 12 elected members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), 3 former ministers and a large number of Palestinian officials. Violations against prisoners Palestinian prisoners are often denied visitors, put in solitary confinement and kept under so-called administrative detention, which means that they are being held without charge or trial. Furthermore, they are subjected to numerous strip searches, denied education opportunities, prohibited from having books, given small servings of low quality food and facing frequent day and night searches. In addition, the prisons lack basic ne

Two years ago, I stood in a hot parking lot near the Texas-Mexico border, sweating and watching a 22-year-old woman named Sam stand outside a closed car window to shield it with her body. Behind her, in the passenger seat of the car, was a woman who was about to be a patient at Whole Woman's Health McAllen, the only abortion clinic for 250 miles. And in front of her, less than a foot from her face on the other side of a chain link fence, was an anti-choice protester who had a poster with pictures of mutilated fetuses on it, and who was yelling at the woman in the car to leave the parking lot and come talk with her about other options. Sam didn't flinch, and the protester didn't go away until Sam had safely escorted the woman from the car into the clinic. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Sam was one of five volunteers who'd come out to the Whole Woman's in McAllen, Texas, that weekend to stand in the parking lot to protect patients from the protesters they knew would come when the clinic was allowed to reopen, per a decision from a judge in Austin . The next day, in an air-conditioned restaurant on the other side of town, Andrea Ferrigno, the corporate vice president of Whole Woman's Health, told me that when she and the doctors showed up to open the clinic's previously shuttered doors, the volunteers were already there waiting, asking what they could do to help. That's how people in Texas take care of each other when their government fails to do the same -- they show up

On 21 July, the southern Turkish city of Suruc witnessed a suicide bombing that claimed the lives of scores and wounded many more. Almost all the victims were Kurdish, Syrian and Turkish activists. The target was a conference hosting human rights and civil society groups. Turkish officials held the Islamic State organisation (IS) responsible for the suicide attack. If so, this would be the first terror act carried out by IS in the Turkish territories. During the week that preceded the Suruc bombing, the towns and villages in the east and southeast of Turkey, which are inhabited by a majority of Kurds, witnessed - for the first time since the start of the Kurdish peace process in March 2013 - a series of attacks claimed to have been perpetrated by the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) or individuals sympathetic to the group. The attacks targeted army patrols and police and security premises, as well as the bombing of the gas pipeline extending from Iran to Turkey. By the beginning of August, the PKK operations claimed the lives of no less than 25 persons from within the Turkish army, the police and the civilian population. By the end of July, statements made by senior Turkish officials, including the president of the republic and the prime minister, were clear about the determination of the Turkish state to confront both the IS and PKK. Ankara announced reaching a deal allowing the United States airforce to use the Incirlik base in the campaign against IS, and Turkey's plan to join

Other news State Department says settlements, 'lack of hope' drive Palestinian violence WASHINGTON (Times of Israel) 21 July by Eric Cortellessa -- A new US State Department report says a myriad of Israeli policies -- such as continued settlement building and aggressive military operations in the West Bank -- are driving Palestinian terrorism, while the Palestinian Authority is making substantial efforts to halt such violence. The report, an annual assessment of worldwide terrorism published this month, detailed a number Palestinian attacks against Israelis in 2016, including through rockets launched from Gaza, gunmen opening fire on civilians in Tel Aviv and numerous stabbing attacks. "Israel again faced terrorist threats from Palestinian terrorists from Gaza and the West Bank," said the report, titled Country Reports on Terrorism 2016. "Since 2015, a series of lone-offender attacks by Palestinians in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank has increased tensions between Israel and the Palestinians." But it also said that Israel was, in part, spurring these attacks through actions that create a "lack of hope" for Palestinians and motivates them to carry out acts of terror. "Continued drivers of violence included a lack of hope in achieving Palestinian statehood, Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank, settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, the perception that the Israeli government was changing the status quo on the Haram Al Sharif/Temple Mount, and IDF tac

(Jerusalem) - Businesses should stop operating in, financing, servicing, or trading with Israeli settlements in order to comply with their human rights responsibilities, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Those activities contribute to and benefit from an inherently unlawful and abusive system that violates the rights of Palestinians. January 19, 2016 Report The 162-page report, " Occupation, Inc.: How Settlement Businesses Contribute to Israel's Violations of Palestinian Rights ," documents how settlement businesses facilitate the growth and operations of settlements. These businesses depend on and contribute to the Israeli authorities' unlawful confiscation of Palestinian land and other resources. They also benefit from these violations, as well as Israel's discriminatory policies that provide privileges to settlements at the expense of Palestinians, such as access to land and water, government subsidies, and permits for developing land. Barkan, located in the occupied West Bank, is an Israeli residential settlement and industrial zone that houses around 120 factories that export around 80 percent of their goods abroad. In the background is the Palestinian village of Qarawat Bani Hassan. (c) 2004 David Silverman "Settlement businesses unavoidably contribute to Israeli policies that dispossess and harshly discriminate against Palestinians, while profiting from Israel's theft of Palestinian land and other resources," said Arvind Ganesan , director of the busi

Almost every discussion of Pakistan, especially in India, inevitably tends to be about the logic and raison d'etre of the country's creation. The process of partitioning a sub-continent along religious lines did not prove as neat as Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah had anticipated. Mr. Jinnah was a lawyer who saw partition as a solution to potential constitutional problems in an independent India. In his first address to Pakistan's Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947 -exactly 67 years ago today - Mr. Jinnah had said: "I know there are people who do not quite agree with the division of India and the partition of the Punjab and Bengal. Much has been said against it, but now that it has been accepted, it is the duty of every one of us to loyally abide by it and honorably act according to the agreement which is now final and binding on all.... One can quite understand the feeling that exists between the two communities wherever one community is in majority and the other is in minority. But the question is, whether it was possible or practicable to act otherwise than what has been done. A division had to take place. On both sides, in Hindustan and Pakistan, there are sections of people who may not agree with it, who may not like it; but in my judgement there was no other solution, and I am sure future history will record its verdict in favour of it. And what is more, it will be proved by actual experience as we go on that that was the only solution of India's constitutio

09 June, 2016 Countercurrents.org (Forget the Richter Scale 8 Earthquake; concentrate on avoiding a South Asian Armageddon!) T he most irresponsible and provocative statement of Dr. Qadeer Khan about nuking Delhi has drawn attention to the real possibility of the whole sub-continent along with South Asia going up in a flash! There have been a number of predictions about a possible nuclear holocaust in the sub-continent because of the race going on between the two neighbouring countries to acquire more and more nuclear and thermo-nuclear warheads. Pakistan is supposed to have 110 to 130 warheads while as India is stated to have 90 to 110! The most worrying aspect is the attempt by Pakistan to acquire tactical warheads capable of stalling the India's cold start thrusts. They are also concentrating on getting submarines with nuclear missiles for acquiring a second strike capability. About a couple of months back, Atul Singh wrote a detailed article in Fair Observer, titled, "Yes, Nuclear Terrorism is a Real Threat"! According to him, "Paul Ashley, a retired professional from the British Armed Forces, has mused that 2016 could be the year of nuclear terrorism. Many worry about a "dirty bomb" that might combine conventional explosives with radioactive material. Two of the bombers involved in the Brussels attacks appear to have monitored a senior researcher who worked at a Belgian nuclear center". "A 2014 report by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) estimated that "nearly 2,000 me

Endnotes and citations are available in the PDF and Scribd versions. This issue brief is part of a series based on seven days of meetings in Jerusalem, Ramallah, Bethlehem, and Tel Aviv, Israel with top officials and experts from the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority. The Middle East remains in a precarious period of transition as President Barack Obama heads on his first trip as president to Israel, Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Jordan this week. In this time of great uncertainty in the Middle East, the United States requires reliable partners to advance its national security interests and values in the region. President Obama's visit is aimed at underscoring the importance of U.S. cooperation with Israelis, Palestinians, and Jordanians at this critical juncture. The challenges posed by Iran, Syria's civil war, a still-violent Iraq, Egypt's transition, and the Middle East uprisings require the United States to work with pragmatic actors to deal with complicated security, political, and economic challenges. President Obama will arrive in the region at a time when many voices are questioning the ability and willingness of the United States to lead. Budget battles in Washington combined with the rebalance to Asia and the complexity of the challenges in the Middle East cause many in the region to doubt the United States. President Obama's visit offers an important opportunity for the United States to assume a leadership role in dealing with security threats such a

When my short essay on Greece after the referendum "The Courage of Hopelessness" was republished by In These Times , its title was changed into "How Alexis Tsipras and Syriza Outmaneuvered Angela Merkel and the Eurocrats". Although I effectively think that accepting the EU terms was not a simple defeat, I am far from such an optimist view. The reversal of the NO of referendum to the YES to Brussels was a genuine devastating shock, a shattering painful catastrophe. More precisely, it was an apocalypse in both senses of the term, the usual one (catastrophe) and the original literal one (disclosure, revelation): the basic antagonism, deadlock, of the situation was clearly disclosed. Many Leftist commentators (Habermas included) got it wrong when they read the conflict between the EU and Greece as the conflict between technocracy and politics: the EU treatment of Greece is not technocracy but politics at its purest, a politics which even runs against economic interests (as it was clearly stated by IMF, a true representative of cold economic rationality, which declared the bailout plan unworkable). If anything, it was Greece which stood for economic rationality and EU which stood for politico-ideological passion. After the Greek banks and stock exchange reopened, there was a tremendous flight of capital and fall of stocks which were not primarily a sign of the distrust of the Syriza government but of the distrust of the imposed EU measures - a clear brutal message that (as we are

Palestinian protesters are chased by Isareli border guards during clashes in the West Bank city of Nablus on November 21, 2012, as they protest against the ongoing Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP/Getty Images. UPDATE: Israel and Hamas have agreed to a cease-fire that will begin within hours, Hillary Clinton announced Wednesday, suggesting that an end to the week-long conflict in Gaza that claimed more than 100 lives would soon come to an end. Josh Voorhees is a Slate senior writer. He lives in northeast Ohio. "The people of this region deserve the chance to be free of fear and violence and today's agreement is a step in the right direction that we should build on," the U.S. secretary of state said from Egypt, where she had been helping negotiate an agreement. The Associated Press with more on the agreement: In details of the agreement obtained exclusively by The Associated Press, the official said Israel would cease all military activity against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and Palestinian militants would cease rocket attacks into Israel. After 24 hours of quiet, Gaza's border crossings with Israel would be opened further to allow freer movement of goods and people. Egypt would be the guarantor of the deal, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Israel's Operation Pillar of Defense is in its second week and while the international community continues to scrambl

Stefan Christoff The Electronic Intifada 3 September 2005 This interview provides a critical perspective on the changing face of Lebanon's politics from an important literary figure in the country, Samah Idriss. Samah is a co-founder of the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel and editor-in-chief of al-Adab, a Lebanese arts and culture magazine based in Beirut The interview was conducted in August 2005 in Beirut, Lebanon and addresses various issues relating to the present day politics of Lebanon, while providing regional context to the major political changes taking place in Lebanon. Idriss addresses the wave of "opposition" demonstrations, which took place following the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the following Syrian withdrawal from the country and the recent Parliamentary elections. Idriss also discusses the relationships between political figures in the country, like Rafik Hariri, with Syrian political and economic elites prior to his death, and focuses on the relationship between Lebanese politics and the Palestinian struggle for liberation. Samah Idriss of the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel in Lebanon (Photo: Stefan Christoff/ EI ) Can you comment on the recent Parliamentary elections in Lebanon, specifically I am interested in your perspectives regarding the relationship between the elections and the wave of "Opposition" demonstrations in Lebanon, demanding the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.... The street demo

Violence / Detentions -- West Bank / Jerusalem Family of Palestinian responsible for attack forced to leave Jerusalem JERUSALEM (Ma'an) 10 Mar -- Five family members of a Palestinian killed after shooting and injuring two Israeli officers were denied Jerusalem residency and transferred to the occupied West Bank by the Israeli authorities, according to prisoners' rights group Addameer. Lawyer for the group Muhammad Mahmoud said the family members of Fouad Abu Rajab -- all of whom lived in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of al-'Issawiya -- were summoned to al-Maskobiya police station in Jerusalem. Mahmoud said the Israeli authorities following investigations moved to deport the family members to the West Bank on the grounds that they were living in Jerusalem illegally. The five were reportedly in the process of applying for Jerusalem residency, Mahmoud said, without adding further information regarding the status of their applications. Following the decision, Israeli police transported the family members to Qalandiya military checkpoint, one of the few access points from occupied East Jerusalem into the West Bank, according to Addameer. Mahmoud identified the five as Abu Rajab's mother, his two sisters Reem and Rose, aged 19 and 16, and his two brothers Mahmoud and Muhammad, aged 15 and 14. Israeli police spokesperson Luba al-Samri said Israeli Minister of Internal Security, Gilad Erdan, had ordered the police to investigate the Rajab family's legal status in Israel. A

Israeli police officers stand guard during a protest by Palestinian citizens of Israel in the city of Nazareth against Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip July 21, 2014. (Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad) West Bank / Jerusalem / Historic Palestine Following wave of protests, Israel arrests scores of Arab activists, minors 972blog 23 July by Hagar Sheizaf (Translated by Ofer Neiman) -- Hundreds of Arab citizens of Israel have been detained in recent weeks, including dozens of minors. Abusive interrogations and preemptive arrests suggest that many of the tactics of occupation have crossed the Green Line -- The murder of Muhammed Abu Khdeir and the military onslaught in Gaza have brought about a wave of protest among Arab citizens of Israel. Reports on that wave should be supplemented by unprecedented data: more than 410 Arab citizens of Israel have been arrested on various grounds related to their participation in demonstrations since July 5, according to data provided by human rights NGO Adalah. Moreover, police statistics reveal that a significant portion of the detainees in the past week are minors. Fifty-four minors are reported to have been arrested in the past two weeks in Israel's northern district alone, comprising one-third of all detainees in that district. Policemen outside the door "I have been active for 14 years and I have never seen such a wave of arrests of minors," says Ward Yassin, 34, from Jdeideh el-Makr. "The feeling is that the police have no red lines." Yas

My brother is five years older than me, but he was a special needs child, due to a learning disability and head trauma he experienced during an accident as an infant. Despite our age difference, I've always treated him more like my younger brother. He participated in special classes all throughout grade school, and required plenty of extra care, as most special needs children do. My mom did the very best she could, juggling meeting his needs while shuffling me my extensive extra curricular activities schedule as a single parent. But of course, there were things she didn't know. I suffered with depression throughout my childhood and it wasn't something my mom recognized or even knew how to deal with, even though the signs were there. I had frequent crying outbursts, was routinely withdrawn, and suffered more anxiety attacks than I could ever count. My mom witnessed all of this, but assumed it was because I was merely a "sensitive child" with "extreme emotions." Managing my brother's regular medications, doctor's appointments, special needs classes, and addiction to television weighed a lot on my mom, but she handled it with a lot of structure in our Christian household. What she couldn't seem to handle, however, was me. Today, my mom still reminisces on what a "mean child" I was since, to her, any struggles I had back then are seemingly over. It's something she smiles about in a thank-God-that's-over-and-we-can-laugh-about-it kind of way. What she didn't understand back

Ali Abunimah and Nigel Parry The Electronic Intifada 2 May 2001 1. THE WEST BANK AND GAZA STRIP ARE NOT PARTS OF ISRAEL Although CNN 's report begins the report (see SOURCE below) with a reference to "violence in Israel," all of the events documented took place in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Coupled with a disturbing trend previously noted in CNN reporting, of presenting the Israeli occupation as merely a Palestinian point of view, it is clear that CNN needs to be more careful about its language use. 2. SINCE OUR PREVIOUS ACTION ITEM , YET ANOTHER INSTANCE OF THE OCCUPATION AS A PALESTINIAN POINT OF VIEW Following our April 12th Action Item #11, CNN yet again portrayed the Israeli occupation as a Palestinian point of view, in a April 26th report titled, "Israel celebrates independence, Palestinians mourn deaths" : "But the Palestinians blame Israel for the violence, saying they employ heavy-handed methods to control Palestinian protesters -- and that the presence of Israeli troops in the West Bank and Gaza amounts to an occupation of Palestinian territory." It should be noted that, following a letter to CNN about the April 26th report, the problematic text of the report was changed. SOLUTION Write to CNN 's editors via Community@cnn.com : Citing the report, "Many More Dead in Israel as Peace Talks Continue," from 1 May 2001. Encouraging CNN to be more careful about how it defines regions and areas in Israel/Palestine, pointing out that all of the violence d

In February, I reported on the first public union campaign at a charter school in Washington, D.C. Teachers at Paul Public Charter School wanted to form their own local--the District of Columbia Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff (DC ACTS)--which would be affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers. Seventy-one percent of Paul's staff signed a petition in support of joining DC ACTS, and asked their administrators on February 22 to voluntarily recognize their union. When the administration refused to do so , Paul teachers filed for an NLRB election--scheduled for Thursday, March 30. (In a statement, the charter's management said, "We do not believe that a union is necessary at Paul PCS.") But the day before the scheduled vote, a surprising thing happened. The AFT, not the charter school teachers, called it off. David Koenig, a government and history teacher at Paul told WAMU that their teacher organizing committee felt they had enough votes to win, and wanted to go ahead with their election, but "we did not have enough people who were willing to be public with their support to convince AFT that we were definitely going to win." While 58 of Paul's 82 teachers, instructional aides, and counselors signed the initial union petition given to administrators in February, in the days leading up to the NLRB election just 33 people were willing to publicly commit to voting "yes" on March 30. Teachers on the organizing committee said that despite this, they were confident, ba

This article is part of the Coal Issues portal on SourceWatch, a project of CoalSwarm and the Center for Media and Democracy . See here for help on adding material to CoalSwarm. To see a nationwide list of 600 coal mines in the United States, click here . For a list of over 40 proposed coal mines, click here . To see a listing of coal mines in a particular state, click on the map: U.S. Coal Production and Productive Capacity by State The following table shows coal production and productive capacity by state in 2013. State Production Productive Capacity Excess Capacity Capacity Utilization (%) Alabama 18,620 22,754 4,134 82% Alaska 1,632 3,000 1,368 54% Arizona 7,603 8,500 897 89% Arkansas 59 240 181 |25% Colorado 24,236 30,954 6,718 78% Illinois 52,147 70,132 17,985 74% Indiana 39,102 47,436 8,334 82% Kansas 22 22 0 100% Kentucky 80,380 102,614 22,234 78% Louisiana 2,810 3,263 453 86% Maryland 1,925 2,839 914 68% Mississippi 3,575 8,700 5,125 41% Missouri 414 444 30 93% Montana 42,231 56,070 13,839 75% New Mexico 21,969 27,700 5,731 79% North Dakota 27,639 32,600 4,961 85% Ohio 25,113 45,100 19,987 56% Oklahoma 1,136 1,308 172 87% Pennsylvania 54,009 65,640 11,631 82% Tennessee 1,098 1,557 459 71% Texas 42,851 44,790 1,939 96% Utah 16,977 23,041 6,064 74% Virginia 16,619 20,205 3,586 82% West Virginia 112,786 134,686 21,900 84% Wyoming 387,924 498,401 110,477 78% Total 982,877 1,251,996 269,119 79% U.S. Coal Reserves The U.S. is estimated to contain more coal reserves than an

Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama announced a four-stage plan to combat the ongoing Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham threat in the Middle East. Daily Sabah spoke with Dr. Mehmet Ozkan, the director of the International Center for Terrorism and Transnational Crime, about Obama's plan, its efficiency, Turkey's position in this conflict and the possible solutions for the situation. How do you evaluate the four-stage plan to combat ISIS announced by Obama? There are expressions implying the U.S. would continue its air raids and its cooperation with the neighboring countries. It can be seen that there is almost nothing new in the plan. However, this was important in the sense that the U.S. has now stated a clear intervention strategy. We can interpret the emphasis on Syria in Obama's speech as an effort to refute the allegations that the U.S. was trying to cooperate with Bashar Assad to terminate ISIS. The plan fundamentally aims to maintain the ongoing air raids on ISIS and arm local elements such as Kurds in the war against ISIS. Accordingly, diminishing the support given to ISIS by Sunni groups through establishing an inclusive government can be seen as the continuation of the plan. However, I don't expect the establishment of an inclusive government in Baghdad, at least not in the short term. Visits by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to the region can be evaluated as an effort to restructure Iraq after weakening ISIS. Do you think that the ISIS threat could be termina

Anyone who has struggled with anxiety understands what it feels like to agonize over the future. It's a phenomenon earth-folk mainstay Jesca Hoop considers on her fifth studio album, Memories Are Now . "I won't be there / I was only here... I can clear this weight / I can stand up tall / I can look you in the eye," she chants on the album's title track. But it's herself she's addressing. "The song is about meeting obstacles with a balanced view," she says over the phone from her home in the U.K. "So all I have to do right now is get over this stepping stone. I don't have to get over that whole mountain now. I just have to get over this one here. And when you're able to just look at it like that, everything is more manageable." At this moment, though, the California-born singer/songwriter, who now resides overseas, is mainly focused on getting her Sub Pop debut LP out the door (arriving on Feb. 10). And rightfully so; this project has an air of rebirth to it. In addition to shifting record labels (not counting her joint release, Love Letter for Fire , with Iron & Wine 's Sam Beam), Hoop and her producer, Blake Mills, have worked to minimize her trademark lush arrangements to make Memories more reminiscent of a live setting. The spare "Animal Kingdom Chaotic" is built around fingerpicked string-work and typewriter clicks. Its Americana-leaning follow-up, "Simon Says," relies only on a lightly distorted six-string, an upright bass and Hoop's layered harmonies. Below, Hoop expand

The "people's car" of the 21st century could spur international development -- or wreck the climate. Perhaps both. A look at the tiny car that's making big waves. In 1908, a car changed the world. The Ford Model T made personal car ownership a reality for millions of people in the United States, introduced mass motorization to the world, and revolutionized the way cities are planned, spawning the very notion of suburbia. Now, a century later, another car is poised to do the very same for India. When Tata Motors' Nano is put on sale later this year it will join the Volkswagen Beetle and British Motor Corp's Mini in the pantheon of "people's cars." While American auto makers struggle to survive, India's motor industry is set to explode. Costing just "one lakh," or 100,000 rupees ($2,600 CDN) -- half as much as the next cheapest car, the Maruti 800 -- the Nano has been generating buzz and excitement since it was first unveiled a year ago at auto shows in Geneva and Moscow. Set to roll off the production line sometime this year (after the original factory had to be scrapped due to farmers' protests over dubious appropriation of their land), the car is aimed at India's rapidly growing middle class, already 50 million strong and set to number 583 million by 2025. Sales of cheap and second hand cars have fallen as millions wait to buy it. "We have already seen quite a phenomenal increase in the number of personal vehicles on Indian roads, and this is going to bring about an explosio

Edited on Mon Jan-21-08 11:30 PM by Elwood P Dowd This is interesting. I use Apple products and only know ONE conservative that uses them. My repub sisters absolutely refuse to use them because Gore is on Apple's board. Limbaugh has been using Apple for years. When DU polls are done on the subject, there seems to be a larger percentage of Apple users here compared to the general public. http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20080117/tc_pcworld/141... Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service Thu Jan 17, 4:20 PM ET People who prefer Apple's Macintosh computers over PCs have long been considered to be on the artsy, hip end of the personality spectrum-- and now a study proves that "Mac people" indeed are more liberal and open-minded than average folks. According to Mindset Media, people who purchase Macs fall into what the branding company calls the "Openness 5" personality category-- which means they are more liberal, less modest and more assured of their own superiority than the population at large. Mindset Media helps companies with strong brands develop ads targeted to people based on personality traits or people's "mindsets," and does research to that effect. So-called Openness 5 types tend to seek rich, varied and novel experiences, according to the company, and believe that imagination and intellectual curiosity are as important to life as more rational or pragmatic endeavors. They also are receptive to their own inner feelings and may experience life with more emotional intensity

By Richard Falk In the aftermath of Khaled Mashaal's emotional visit to Gaza in celebration of Hamas' 25th anniversary, commentary in Israel and the West has focused on his remarks at a rally as 'defiant' and disclosing 'the true face' of Hamas. Emphasis was particularly placed on his dramatic pledge to recover the whole of historic Palestine, from the Mediterranean to Jordan, "inch by inch," no matter how long such a process might take. Mashaal also challenged the legitimacy of the Zionist project, and justified Palestinian resistance in whatever form it might assume, although disavowing the intention to attack civilians as such, and denying any complicity by Hamas in the November 21, 2012 incident in Israel when a bomb exploded in a Jerusalem bus. These remarks certainly raise concerns for moderate Israelis who continue to advocate a two-state solution in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 242, but at the same time, it is important to listen to Hamas fully before reaching any firm conclusions. What Mashaal said in Gaza was at a rally dedicated to reaffirming its fundamental struggle in the immediate aftermath of the recent 8 day Israeli attack (code-named Pillar of Defense), and by a leader who for the first time in 45 years had openly dared to set foot in his occupied and oppressed homeland. Mashaal is a leader who has lived in exile in several countries of the region since he was 11 years old, having been born in the Selwad neighborhood of Ramallah, then under

Continuing the trend of making heroes out of cold-blooded killers, Palestinian children's television recently aired a program that declares an Islamic terrorist who has murdered more than 100 Israeli Jews a "role model." In the kid's 10-minute From My Country TV show, arch-terrorist Abu Jihad - who the Palestinian Authority (PA) credits with murdering at least 125 Israeli Jews - is touted as a "role model to be followed." "The opening of the weekly 10-minute program - which has been broadcast twice so far - shows a cube with photos of six different Palestinian personalities," Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported. "One of them is terrorist Abu Jihad, who orchestrated numerous terror attacks against Israelis, among them the most lethal attack in Israel's history - the Coastal Road Massacre - in which Palestinian terrorists hijacked a bus and murdered 37 civilians, among them 12 children." 'Hometown' hero? In the Palestinian television program broadcasted with the goal of recruiting future jihadists to brutally take over Israel in the name of the Islamic god, Allah, the young host of the show introduces the latest installment by inciting nationalism through portraying Palestinians' selfless commitment to improve their so-called "homeland," despite their "struggle" with Israeli Jews. "Hello, my dear friends, and welcome to the program From My Country ," the Palestinian host opens up, according to PMW. "You certainly know how beautiful our country is: its villages, cities, histo

Latuff (public domain): Netanyahu will be a partner for peace Maybe you noticed that all hell is breaking loose at the United Nations. But over what? Israel had a fit over what it alleges were European countries' intrusion into its "domestic affairs." Stick with me for a minute as I try and lay out what is really going on: diversionary bloviation to protect Israel from its obligations to submit border and security proposals for the 2 state solution. Here is the back story. After Palestinians put in their bid for statehood at the UN, on September 23 the Quartet issued a request for information from both Palestinians and Israelis. The Quartet's deadline for the proposals is fast approaching: January 26th. On November 14th Palestinian Authority President Abbas turned over proposals for Palestinian state borders and security arrangements to the Quartet "as a demonstration of flexibility and to garner the support of the international community. Abbas also committed to suspending any unilateral steps at the UN until January 26." The Quartet then requested that Netanyahu provide a counter proposal. The Israeli premier balked, citing as an excuse that such proposals should be presented in direct negotiations . Thus far Israel has refused to submit a counter-proposal. It wasn't always like that. Haaretz (3 weeks back) tracked the changing line: About a week after it was issued, Israel welcomed the Quartet's plan. Since then, envoys from the Quartet have come to the region twice for

The Student Movement: Radical Priorities Matthew Brett Social Movements , Web Exclusive April 19, 2012 The student movement in Quebec is an incredibly important development, with implications that reach well beyond provincial borders. The movement emerged in response to a 75 per cent increase in tuition fees to be implemented over the next five years, but it has quickly evolved into something far more significant. "People are starting to realize that the real problem behind the rising tuition fees and the commodification of education is something related to a socioeconomic system that is behind it all," said Frank Levesque-Nicol, a spokesperson for a protest that was held on February 2, 2012. The student movement has rekindled the political imagination to a degree not seen since the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. This is the most troubling and dynamic period in recent Quebec history, and the possibility that this energy will foster fundamental social change is very real. The student movement is being treated as a single-issue by the mainstream media, and while one of the core demands is indeed for tuition to remain frozen, students have consistently framed and fought their struggle in broader social terms. The movement today is one of resistance and social change. People are refusing to pay for decades of corporate tax cuts, deregulation, economic crises and environmental exploitation. And while the conditions in Quebec are unique, many of the basic principles apply acros

The socio-political crisis in Syria has uprooted over ten-million Syrians from their homes; Most of them have remained inside Syria, while the rest have left. Syrian refugees continue to stream into Europe, but mostly into the neighboring states - Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Turkey - impoverished and grieving. The majority have been directed to existing weakened localities and to new refugee camps erected for them by the host states, usually in border areas, for their daily survive they depend on international aid that provides them only with the most basic of needs. About three-quarters of the Syrian refugee population in the region are women. According to UNICEF, international organizations have so far donated only one-quarter of their aid commitment to the Syrian refugees, which places the daily amount per refugee at the minimal sum of 3.2 US Dollars (as reported by the UN Commissioner for Refugees). About one-quarter of the refugees families depend on the women for their livelihood, and UN data shows that only one out of five women is paid for her work, so that most families, especially in Lebanon, live below the poverty line. Moreover, the humanitarian aid given to the refugees focuses on their daily life, physical and immediate needs. The current "Aid Approach" lacks the long term vision of civil life inside camps, which is a question should be raised in the light of the ongoing continues Conflict and instability in Syria. So, for example is International

Land, property theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Settlements / Judaization Israeli forces besiege Palestinian cemetery outside Jerusalem's Old City, prevent burial JERUSALEM (Ma'an) 5 Dec -- Israeli forces Monday at noon besieged the Palestinian Bab al-Rahma cemetery outside occupied East Jerusalem's Old City, denying the entry of Palestinians attempting to bury the body of a recently deceased woman. Eyewitnesses told Ma'an that Israeli forces suddenly surrounded the cemetery following early afternoon prayers and prevented the burial under the pretext that the cemetery was established on Israeli state land that was confiscated in order to be used for building a "national park." Locals added that earlier Monday morning, Israeli forces had detained two members of the deceased woman's family who were trying to open a grave in the cemetery to prepare it for the burial. Bab al-Rahma, meaning Door of Mercy, runs along the eastern wall of Jerusalem's Old City and has been in use for more than 1,000 years.The cemetery has been the site of escalating tensions and controversy in recent months, since Israeli authorities have seemingly been enforcing policies as a result of a September 2015 seizure of parts of the cemetery to be used for a national park trail. Head of the committee for the preservation of Islamic cemeteries in Jerusalem, Mustafa Abu Zahra, told Ma'an at the time that part of the cemetery, including gravesites, was fenced off as part of the confiscation. Abu Zahra

Will Obama Call Abbas's UN Bluff? Jonathan S. Tobin 2015-09-30 Let's first dispense with the notion that, as Abbas claims, the failure to convert the Oslo Accords into a two-state solution with a peace treaty is solely the fault of Israel. The chief claim that Israel has violated the Oslo terms is the "growth" of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. It is true that the Israeli population in the West Bank has grown since 1993. But when people hear of growth and the Palestinian claims that their land is being "stolen" they assume that means the number of Jewish towns and villages in the West Bank has grown along with the population. But that is a lie. The actual number of settlements in the West Bank has remained largely unchanged. No new vast areas of land to which the Palestinians can assert ownership have been taken from them. All that has happened is that new houses have been built inside existing settlements or in Jerusalem, which Israelis consider their united capital city. The Palestinians may not like the fact that there are more Jews in the West Bank, but with few exceptions Israeli governments of both the left and the right have maintained the status quo in the West Bank in terms of land under their control. Israel's record isn't perfect but it kept its side of an Oslo bargain that was based on the idea that it could trade land for peace but instead brought only terror. The deal signed on the White House Lawn 22 years ago brought the PLO back from exile. It handed it

By Associated Press | December 17, 2015, 6:19 EDT Printed from: http://newbostonpost.com/2015/12/17/fresh-from-debate-cruz-looks-to-super-tuesday-for-advantage/ Ted Cruz walks with daughter Caroline following the CNN Republican presidential debate at the Venetian Hotel & Casino on Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher) ATLANTA (AP) -- Less than two months before voters in Iowa and New Hampshire start winnowing the field of Republican presidential hopefuls, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz isn't ready to hunker down in those historically influential states just yet. Instead, he's redirecting his burgeoning campaign toward a band of March primary states he believes can propel him to the GOP nomination. On the heels of his newfound lead in a key Iowa poll, his itinerary demonstrates some combination of confidence and risk -- and it offers a contrast with rivals who must focus on the two early states as they try to prove their staying power. While Jeb Bush and Chris Christie conduct as many New Hampshire town hall meetings as possible, Cruz will travel on a chartered jet through seven states that vote on March 1 -- Super Tuesday -- concentrating on several Southern states where Cruz is particularly popular among conservatives. The itinerary includes Minnesota, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Cruz's trip is driven in part by simple math, since the Super Tuesday states offer a trove of delegates that will be required to win the nomination at t

Author`s name Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey 16 Mar 2016 at 18:47 How the Syrian Arab Army beat NATO's terrorists Between one hundred thousand and two hundred thousand mercenary terrorist forces poured over the Syrian borders from Jordan, Turkey and Israel, the logistics being provided by Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and their master the USA, whose attempt to invade Syria when Assad was fighting back was thwarted by Moscow. How did President Assad win? Russia established objectives from the beginning President Putin is a master of leadership and diplomacy, a policymaker of a class and professionalism that the world has rarely, if ever, seen and that is the reason why Russians vote for him time and time again in free and fair democratic elections. He stated from the very beginning Russia's objectives in the anti-terrorist operation in Syria, namely to stabilize the democratically elected Government forces and to beat back Takfiri terrorist elements from the main centers of population. Job done, Russia can scale back (but not entirely out) and watch the peace game unfold on the table, among the players on the ground. Russia is betting on a diplomatic and peaceful, negotiated settlement, after five years of western interference wrought havoc in Syrian society and five months of clear-cut policy from Moscow ended the conflict and saved the majority of Syrians who voted for Moscow's ally, Assad, from a horrific outcome. This does not mean, however, that the units being removed today cann

A citizens' basic income of EUR780 a month, a fiscal stimulus, a national investment bank and a defiant middle finger to the European Commission should it dare stand in the way. There is a lot in the coalition agreement of the new Italian government for the left to like. But it comes laden with racism, nationalism, a commitment to conservative "family values" - and the promise of a war on undocumented migrants and the Roma community. Above all, the economic programme of the coalition to be formed today by the populist Five Stars Movement and the right-wing xenophobes of the Northern Leagues, is firmly tilted towards the small state, free market policies of the latter. It is, in short, the first coherent example in Europe of what I've called "neoliberalism in one country". Most people on the Italian left assume, rightly, that it will fail in its own terms, destroying the popularity of the Five Star Movement in the process. But that's of little comfort. The rise of a hard-to-categorise populist movement, playing on the linked themes of corruption, organised crime and illegal immigration, has disoriented the traditional centre-left Democratic Party. If they, and the fragments assembled to their left, are to stand a chance of picking up the pieces when Italy's experiment in free-market nationalism fails, huge changes in outlook and practice will be needed. The programme agreed on Friday is a mish-mash, and leaves out the bloodcurdling promises of a leaked earlier draft to stage a

Pity the Syrians as they face the Assad regime's tanks and artillery and snipers. Unlike in Libya, there is no Arab or international "mandate" to protect them. Grant Syria's rulers their due: Their country rides with the Iranian theocracy and provides it access to the Mediterranean. It is a patron of Hamas and Hezbollah. And still they managed to sell the outside world on the legend of their moderation. True, Damascus was at one time or another at odds with all its neighbors--Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Israel--but it managed to remain in the good graces of the international community. It had made a mockery of Lebanon's sovereignty, murdered its leaders at will. Yet for all the brutality and audacity of the Syrian reign of terror and plunder in Lebanon, the Syrians were able to convince powers beyond that their writ was still preferable to the chaos that would engulf Lebanon were they to leave. In the same vein, Damascus was able to pull off an astonishing feat: Syria was at once the "frontline" state that had remained true to the struggle against Israel, and the country that kept the most tranquil border with the Jewish state. (As easily as Syria's rulers kept the peace of that border, they were able to shatter it recently, sending Palestinian refugees to storm the border across the Golan Heights.) It was the writer Daniel Pipes who rightly said that Syria's leaders perennially wanted the "peace process" but not peace itself. Their modus operandi was thus: Keep the Americ

Taking umbrage of the Indian Army chief's remarks that the AIUDF has been facilitating the influx of Bangladeshis into Assam , to trigger a demographic change in the state, party general secretary Aminul Islam addressed a press conference in Guwahati saying the statement lacks reality and the army chief should not indulge in politics. Islam said, as per CNN-News18: "We as a political party have been upfront in demanding the NRC (National Register of Citizens) both at the Parliament and in the Assembly. Around 80 percent work of the NRC is over. The demand for NRC is a long one and has been pending since 1985. Although the state and Centre sought more time to complete the NRC process, the Supreme Court only a couple of days back made it clear that the final draft should be submitted to the apex court by 30 June. Different levels of verifications are going on for the NRC. We don't have any hidden agenda. We have always sought border fencing. In fact, we have always demanded the complete sealing of the India-Bangladesh border." File image of AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal. Wikimedia Commons Islam further said that the party came into being in October 2005. AIUDF fought the first Assembly polls in 2006. So far, the party has fought two parliamentary polls, three Assembly elections and two panchayat polls. "We are a regional party from Assam. We have worked for the state. We are concerned about General (Bipin) Rawat's comments," Islam said. Training his gun on General Rawat, the AIU

Sunday September 20, 2015 It is increasingly difficult to watch the most recent coverage of the Syrian war and not be struck by how utterly illogical and convoluted it has become. But look through the media spin and it's clear: the Russian leader's steady moves in Syria are perplexing the US. Whether it's the latest neocon claim that the way to "help" refugees is to drop more bombs and train more Al-Qaeda-linked rebels, or the conveniently-timed mass hysteria over Russia's (never secret) support for Bashar Assad -- or even the strange (and completely false) notion floating around that the West has "done nothing" in Syria, all of this nonsense is becoming very difficult to take seriously. It's fairly easy to tell when Washington is scrambling to keep control of a story, because two things usually happen: firstly, the media coverage becomes muddled and frazzled, and secondly, the White House quickly looks for somewhere to offload the blame. These days the scapegoat is usually Russia, and hey, why fix what ain't broken? Obama's fumbling vs. Putin's consistency On September 11, Barack Obama warned that Russia's strategy of continued support for Assad was "doomed to fail" and a "big mistake." In a patronizing little addendum, Obama said Putin was "going to have to start getting a little smarter." There's more than a little irony in such statements, given that Obama's own Syria strategy thus far has been an abject failure. However, the vaguely personal nature of his comments bet

In August 2011, when the Israeli army bombed the Gaza Strip for nearly a week, killing 26 and injuring 89 more Palestinians, they at least had a pretext, no matter how transparently false -- one which was immediately proven bogus by both their own Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) spokeswoman and subsequent investigations. Four days ago on March 9, 2012, when the Israeli army assassinated two Palestinians via a precision-fired "drone" (UAV, the technically accurate name) missile, they didn't even have the pretense of a pretext to cling to. The missile, which hit a car in Gaza City's Tel el Hawa district, killing two Palestinian resistance fighters, was the first of almost non-stop bombing that has continued throughout Monday. As of Monday evening, the death toll was 25 Palestinians, with another over 80 injured -- many with critical, life-threatening injuries -- and 3 Israelis injured from the crude, unguided rockets Palestinian resistance fire, with no signs that Israel would cease its murderous campaign. In the first attacks, the IOF assassinated Zuhair al-Qaisi, the secretary general of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), and PRC member Mahmoud Hanani. Samer, a university student from Beit Hanoun, spoke Monday of the injured he saw at northern Gaza's Kamal Adwan hospital: "The injured I saw there yesterday were all children and women." Indeed, if the death toll is accurate, while a great many of the assassinated have been resistance fighters, the martyred -- and nearly

But when asked as to whether Hamas building tunnels in residential neighborhoods whose only purpose is to facilitate cross-border terror raids into Israel is a war crime a Human Rights Watch official that the Times described as an "expert on international law regarding warfare, the best that Sari Bashi could come up with is a shrug of her shoulders. According to Bashi, building terror tunnels in residential neighborhoods is "not explicitly prohibited." Really? That, in a nutshell, sums up everything that is wrong with the international community's response to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. While Bashi, an American-born Israeli lawyer, admits Hamas has "an obligation to take all feasible measures to protect civilians, including not taking the armed conflict to civilian areas, to the extent possible," she won't go farther than that. That's bizarre because it would seem obvious, even to those who aren't "experts" in international law that structures built solely to facilitate efforts to cross an international border to murder and kidnap is illegal. Indeed, terrorism, whether it is committed via a tunnel or with rockets shot indiscriminately at cities (as Hamas did several thousand times during the 2014 war) or suicide bombings, is always illegal. But in the upside-down world of human rights activism that a group such as Human Rights Watch epitomizes, ambivalence about Palestinian war crimes is always accompanied by vicious condemnations of Israel's efforts to de

A Reminder To The Sage Of Bengaluru By John Dayal 31 March, 2012 Countercurrents.org M ukund Murari Singh of Haridwar and Ravi Shankar Ratnam of Bengaluru do not know each other, but Singh does not like what Ratnam says. In a rejoinder on the internet to well publicised speech of Ratnam, Mukund Murari Singh rubbished his claim that students who go to government schools end up as Naxalites. "Dear Mr Sri Sri, I did my schooling from Government Schools (Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan) across the length and breadth of India. I also completed my engineering from a Government College (IIT). I assure you, none of my classmates or me have ended up as Naxals. Ignorant statements like these reek of upper-class ignorance and indifference. Sincerely, Proud Indian and a Patriot." Ravi Shankar Ratnam, as everyone knows, is the name Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was born with before he heeded a complaint from Pandit Ravi Shankar, the Sitar maestro, not to copy his name. In 1990, the former student of Maharishi Yogi shed the Ratnam, added two Shris and founded the Art of Living movement, going on to open an ashram and an NGO in Geneva, the city of the United Nations offices. His official website, and his hagiographers, will of course not tell you such interesting titbits. They are busy rewriting a nice persona for him. His official bio notes he was a child prodigy, reciting the classics at age four, and graduating in Physics at age seventeen. A little research unearths the fact that he studied at St Jo

Thanksgiving in Gaza [photos]25 Nov by Radhika Sainath -- It all started with a simple question from Jabar, a Palestinian farmer from Faraheen, during Eid al-Adha, the festival of sacrifice. "Is there an American eid (holiday) where you slaughter an animal?" he asked Nathan, a colleague here in Gaza, a few weeks ago. Thanksgiving and turkeys came to mind. And so, I found myself celebrating "Thanksgiving," Gazan-style, this afternoon in the small, southern Gazan village. http://notesfrombehindtheblockade.wordpress.com/2011/11/25/thanksgiving-in-gaza/ Land, property theft and destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Restriction of movement Netanyahu delays demolition of Jerusalem bridge over Egypt, Jordan warning Haaretz 28 Nov -- The dispute over the Old City's Mughrabi Bridge is a key issue in Egypt's elections -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the Jerusalem municipality and the Public Security Ministry on Friday to postpone for one week the demolition of the Mughrabi Bridge, which leads from the Western Wall Plaza to the Temple Mount, due to warnings from Egypt and Jordan of possible repercussions. According to a senior Israeli official, the demolition of the bridge was planned for a 72-hour period beginning Saturday night. However, Netanyahu's bureau asked the municipality to postpone the work due to the sensitivity of the issue and warnings from Egypt that the action would focus protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Israel. Netanyahu is expected to convene a meeting o

Article on the Apartheid-like conditions which Palestinian migrant workers labour under, the obstacles which the Israeli occupation puts on their ability to organise and the ways in which they have attempted to overcome it. Also looks at how the Zionist trade union, the Histadrut, is one of the main exploiters of Palestinian labour. FOR OVER A DECADE, West Bank and Gazan labourers in Israel were all but ignored. For sections of the Palestinian nationalist movement, they were an embarassing symbol of the failure of the policy of sumud (steadfastness) to prevent the occupation from effecting deep structural changes in the society and economy of the occupied territories. For the international media, migrant labour was undramatic when compared to more newsworthy guerrilla operations or demonstrations. Israeli society, albeit with exceptions, preferred not to notice its Arab labour and, when the 'Jewish' state's embarassing dependence on non-Jewish labour was noticed, particularly on Muslim feastdays, the conviction that the Arabs were more dependent on Israel than vice versa was a comforting reaffirmation of ethnic superiority. The 1980s have seen the development of interest in the migrant workers. The nationalist movement has embarked on attempts to recruit them into unions; the international media has found numerous opportunities to draw comparison with South African migrant labour, together with a plethora of 'human interest' stories; Israeli sociologists have discovered a top

In the seventh month of its life, the Syrian revolution has passed through many stages, experienced ebbs and flows, and reached new layers of the masses while others have passed into inactivity or suffered brutal oppression. However, the youth and the oppressed are determined to carry the torch of the revolution to the end, to "victory or martyrdom". The revolt has spread like wildfire, and all the efforts of a decaying regime to extinguish the fire have resulted in no more than a temporary relief. The masses have awakened from their slumber to come onto the stage of history, and a nation is being reborn baptised in blood and fire. Revolution reaches deep into the masses What started as a movement of angry, frustrated and oppressed youth has spread to capture the imagination of millions striving for freedom and justice. From Dar'aa in the South, passing through Damascus, Homs and Hama in the centre and reaching Idleb in the North, and from Latakia in the west to Der Al-Zour and Qamishli in the East, the revolution has spread to engulf the whole country. Just as the revolution has spread horizontally it has equally spread vertically with the revolutionary fever reaching deep into all classes of society: farmers, workers, small shop owners, professionals, intellectuals, and even artists and celebrities. Even those sections of society supportive of the regime have been pushed onto the stage of politics by the movement. Everyone is talking about politics and many are involved in

Palestinian women in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have lived all or most of their lives under Israeli occupation. ( Markus Cuel ) Israeli and Palestinian authorities must take concrete steps to put an end to the suffering of Palestinian women, who have been affected in every aspect of their lives by the conflict, Amnesty International said in a report published today. "Palestinian women have borne the brunt of the escalation of the conflict and decades of Israeli occupation, while in Palestinian society they are subjected to a system of laws and norms that treats them as unequal members of society," said Amnesty International. The report Conflict, Occupation and Patriarchy: Women Carry the Burden examines the impact on women of the spiralling violence and unprecedented level of restrictions of movements imposed by Israel on Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, as well as increased violence against women in the family and discriminatory laws and practices. Sweeping restrictions have led to unprecedented levels of poverty, unemployment and health problems for the entire Palestinian population in the Occupied Territories. Mobility restrictions, refusal or delay of passage at Israeli army checkpoints, blockades and curfews, have caused multiple complications for women in need of medical care, and in some cases have even resulted in the death of patients. Scores of women have been forced to give birth at checkpoints, by the roadside, and several have lost their babies because

In a commentary published on May 29, the CNBC said Afghanistan can become a victim of a new plan by Trump's administration to reintroduce U.S. sanctions on Iran as the penalties could block development of Iran's Chabahar Port by India. Following is an excerpt of the commentary by the broadcaster: Afghanistan is at risk of become an unintended victim of the Donald Trump administration's sweeping sanctions against Tehran, announced as part of the U.S. decision to withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in early May. A major port complex is being developed on Iran's southern coast that is set to provide a transport corridor to Afghanistan, granting the landlocked country new access to Indian Ocean trade. But international players leading investment and financing of the Indian-backed port are now in limbo amid fears of punishment by U.S. secondary sanctions for doing business in Iran. The Chabahar Port project, whose development is being led by India, has been touted as having the potential to boost Afghanistan's trade by millions of dollars. It also aims to lay the infrastructural foundations to develop the impoverished country's largely untapped mining industry, which is estimated to be worth billions. India relies on Iran for overland access to Afghanistan, and sees increased trade there as a way to reduce neighboring Pakistan's leverage in the country. Nearly 17 years after the U.S. invasion to topple the Taliban, Afghanistan remains crippled by poverty, unemployment and ter

My friend Dhaval Shah marched in Ahmedabad's first Queer Pride parade on December 1. Two weeks later he was back on the streets with placards protesting the Supreme Court verdict on Section 377. He posted pictures of himself with 20-30 others with their homemade signs in front of thousands who had assembled for Narendra Modi's Run for Unity. Someone commented Dhaval's smiling pictures looked more cute than angry on what was supposed to be a Day of Rage. "How can I not smile?" responded Dhaval. More people showed up to protest than he had expected. The crowds were not hostile but curious. They were taking pictures and reading the signs aloud. Not a single protester felt intimidated and left. The rage over the 377 verdict isn't just a story about anger. It's also a story about solidarity from unexpected quarters. Nobody should face discrimination because of their sexual preferences. To be branded a criminal for this is absurd. Am v sad at lack of BJP support for abolishing #Sec377. Not encouraging something and outlawing it are two different things. Even brushing your teeth is unnatural. Let's make it a crime. The (Delhi) High Court had wisely removed an archaic, represssive and unjust law that infringed on the basic human rights enshrined in our constitution. Protests against the re-criminalisation of homosexuality. AFP. The gays have done the impossible - they have made Sonia Gandhi, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Chetan Bhagat sound like each other. When India's biggest English-la

Reinventing The Indian Left: A Review Of 'The Phoenix Moment: Challenges Confronting the Indian Left' By Praful Bidwai 28 February, 2016 Countercurrents.org I t is an inspiring moment as the students of JNU fight back magnificently against a paranoid, malicious rightwing regime, bent on persecuting them through mob violence and misuse of state power. The movement against the absurd charges of 'sedition' foisted on student leaders and assaults on media and academics by the ruling BJP's goons, has rallied together the entire spectrum of left, democratic parties and civil society in the country. And yet, for all the brave resistance being put up, the harsh fact remains that as far as the Indian Left is concerned, it is at its lowest ebb since Indian Independence. Over the last two decades, with their dwindling public support and confused responses to national and global developments, the left parties- across the spectrum- have become a negligible force in Indian politics. Today, talk of socialism, five year plans, public sector, anti-imperialism, Naxalism and the very idea of the Communist Party evokes little enthusiasm amidst the Indian population, including the poor and marginalized the Left is supposed to be working for. There was a time, not too long ago, when the Lefttowered mightily over domestic and foreign policy debates, shaped social and cultural trends and fired the imagination of thousands of youth across the country, willing to sacrifice their lives for the 'revolut

BEERSHEBA, Israel (AP) -- A century to the day after Australian troops broke through Ottoman defenses in a daring World War I victory, nearly 200 horsemen -- including descendants of the soldiers -- paraded through streets of an Israeli city in a memorial to those killed in a battle that helped turn the tide of the war and shape the modern Middle East. With leaders from Israel, Australia and New Zealand in attendance Tuesday, Australian and Israeli military marching bands led the way through the flag-festooned route in Bersheeba, flanked by several thousand onlookers in a tribute to the 171 British and Commonwealth troops killed that day. Some 175 members of the Australian Light Horse Association participated. Australian military veteran Ian Dunlop, whose grandfather fought at Beersheba, wore his ancestor's four military medals on his chest and said he was "very proud" to have come from his native Melbourne. The battle was a crucial, if largely forgotten, victory in the Mideast campaign that enabled the Allies to break the Turkish line in what is now southern Israel and capture Jerusalem weeks later. The victorious campaign redrew the map of the Middle East. In the fall of 1917, Allied forces with Gen. Sir Edmund Allenby's Egyptian Expeditionary Force advanced on Gaza as part of a campaign to knock the Ottoman Empire, Germany's ally, out of the war. To outflank the Turkish troops entrenched around Gaza, a parched detachment made a desperate maneuver through the Negev Desert t

The members of the NAM Committee on Palestine are Algeria, Bangladesh, Colombia, Cuba, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Palestine,Senegal, South Africa and Zimbabwe while Angola, Chile, Pakistan and the Philippines are NAM Caucus members of the UN Security Council. Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka are invited guests as they play an important role towards solving the Palestinian issue. (Photo: MFA Malaysia ) The Non-Aligned Movement ( NAM ) called on its member states to bar all products and goods emanating from Israeli settlements at the end of the fourteenth Ministerial Conference of the Non-Alignment Movement (Mid-Term Review) in Durban, South Africa. The call for measures was issued by the Committee on Palestine of the Non-Alignment Movement. The NAM declaration called for its members to "decline entry to Israeli settlers and to impose sanctions against companies and entities involved in the construction of the wall." "With regard to member states, the ministers called upon them to undertake measures, including by means of legislation, collectively, regionally and individually, to prevent any products of the illegal Israeli settlements from entering their markets," said the declaration. The International Court of Justice, the UN 's highest legal body, ruled last month that parts of the Separation Barrier built on occupied Palestinian territory were illegal and should be torn down. XIV MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE OF THE NON - ALIGNED MOVEMENT ( NAM ) DECLARATION ON PALESTINE

The Vaccine Program's Unintended Consequences: A Tale of Two Hepatitis B Studies In 1991 , US public health authorities began recommending that all infants get the hepatitis B (HepB) vaccine, stipulating that they receive three doses within the first six months of life, starting at birth. The World Health Organization (WHO) followed suit with its own recommendation in 1992 , instructing countries to vaccinate from birth even where hepatitis B virus was uncommon . Two 2018 studies (one in the US and one in India ) take a closer look at the outcomes and implications of these blanket prescriptions. Although the studies focus on different aspects of their countries' respective vaccine programs, both are cautionary tales, highlighting the fact that one-size-fits-all vaccine recommendations frequently steamroll over important biological risks and immune system subtleties, thereby introducing troublesome unintended consequences. U.S. children and taxpayers on the hook Until the early 2000s, the HepB vaccine in the US contained organic ethylmercury in the form of the preservative thimerosal--totaling 37.5 micrograms across the three doses. Regulators have never bothered to set any safety standards for ethylmercury, but government researchers have shown that the toxicity mechanisms of ethyl- and methylmercury (the type of mercury found in fish) are similar , and some believe that even the tiniest amounts carry a risk of adverse neuropsychological outcomes . Fixated on the sole

There is fresh rage on the bad state of law and order in India today. That rage is entirely appropriate. My father was born in 1926 and experienced British rule. One of the high points of his life was participation in the freedom movement. He used to say to me with great regret that under British rule the Shiv Sena would have never arisen. What has happened in India is a disgrace. The interesting and important question is: How can the problems be solved? Moral outrage does not lend itself to good policy analysis. As with the problem of corruption, the problem of law and order requires sophisticated thinking. Just as the young people who got enamoured by Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare got nothing done in terms of combating corruption, we should worry about what comes next on law and order. Anger and outrage, coupled with low knowledge of political science and public economics, is a sure path to poor policy analysis. What matters is shifting from anger to analysis to action. Protests in Delhi following the gangrape of a 23-year-old student. AP. As an example, if laws are modified to prescribe draconian penalties for rape, then rapists are more likely to kill the victim. What is required is better quality implementation of the existing law. What would it take to make the police and courts work better? The three ingredients that are required are incentives for politicians , resources and feedback loops . Incentives for politicans The first issue is incentives for politicians. Politi

Violence / Detentions -- West Bank / Jerusalem Ahmad Dawabsha taken to hospital after health deteriorates NABLUS (Ma'an) 11 Aug -- Ahmad Dawabsha , the five-year-old sole survivor of an arson attack in the village of Duma in the occupied West Bank district of Nablus last year, was taken to Israel's Tel Hashomer hospital Wednesday night after his health deteriorated. Naser Dawabsha, a member of the family, told Ma'an that the "child's health has severely deteriorated," adding that Ahmad has suffered from "constant vomiting and an increase in body temperature." Naser said that medical tests were done on Ahmad and he would remain in the hospital until his health condition stabilized. Ahmad was officially released from the hospital last month , returning for weekly checkups and additional surgeries expected over the coming months, most of them plastic surgeries to help reconstruct parts of his body and face which were severely burned in the attack. The young boy was severely injured in the high-profile attack which took place in the town of Duma in the Nablus district in July 2015, and has undergone a series of complex surgeries since. Two Israelis were indicted for murder for the arson in January, five months after suspects belonging to a Jewish terror organization set the home of the Dawabsha family ablaze, burning 18-month-old Ali to death.The infant's parents, Riham and Saad , later died from severe burns, leaving then four-year-old Ahmad Dawabsha the only surviving member of

A question for all interested, but especially for those who fit somewhere inside the tradition of Nicene Christianity. I'll first give an overview of the question, then explain the two most common answers. Then I'll distinguish among five positions one might take. And at the end, I'll take one! The major positions Christians are divided about spiritual gifts, and especially divided about whether some of the gifts have ceased to operate. No Christian I have ever heard of believes that all of the gifts have ceased to operate. But they are divided about the continuation of the so-called charismatic gifts: apostleship, miracles and healing, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, prophecy, and discerning of spirits. They usually take one of two major views on the subject. Continuationists hold that all the spiritual gifts continue. Cessationists believe that gifts such as evangelism, teaching, pastoring, exhorting, and administering are still in operation, but the charismatic gifts have ceased. Of course, there are compromise positions. For example, some might say that some of these gifts (such as, for example, apostleship) have ceased, but others remain. Why would anyone be a cessationist? William Bell (not to be confused with Leonard Nimoy's character from Fringe ) I've learned some great stuff about cessationism from listening to my old theology teacher, William E. Bell. (All of Bell's lectures are available online . Bell makes his case for cessationism here , just aft

Jewish National Fund for West Bank settlers AIC Alternative News 11 May by Hithabrut-Tarabut -- The journalist Raviv Drucker published an internal document from the financial department of the Jewish National Fund on his blog ( original piece , in Hebrew). The document details how much the JNF spends on "development initiatives" for settlers in the occupied West Bank. So, what's on the list? For example, the document mentions the JNF building a "promenade" in the Har Gilo settlement in Gush Etzion costing 2.5 million ILS, but only "on condition that the promenade be called "The JNF Promenade." There is a "scenic viewpoint and park" built by the JNF in the Mitzpe Yericho settlement near Jericho, costing 600,000 ILS. There is even a "historical heritage site" built in the Rosh Tzurim settlement, one of the settlements surrounding Bethlehem, for 400,000 ILS. And of course, the settlers of Hebron make an appearance as well. Lots of infrastructure, agricultural paths and even a bit of neighborhood renewal. To the best of our knowledge, this is a very partial list. For instance, the big JNF development projects for water-robbing settlements in the Jordan Valley don't make a single appearance here. These are probably being hidden in other budget items. And the land-purchasing activities, if they are run through the JNF's subsidiary "Himanuta", are not shown here. But even based on this partial calculation, that's about 188.5 millions ILS in ten years, and this is only the small chan

Post-abortion therapy with a pro-life therapist -- sounds like a contradiction, right? When I agreed to it, I knew there could be problems. How could a woman like me, a woman who'd had three abortions, even be in the same room with a pro-life advocate? But Maribel, the therapist, seemed so kind. With her bad perm and polyester pants, she appeared old-fashioned and wholesome. She promised the therapy would be non-judgmental and non-religious. She said she could "cleanse" the pain in my heart. I yearned to be "cleansed." I'd carried my abortion shame in silence for two decades. I'm from Ireland, where abortion is illegal, but women are allowed travel abroad for one. I had three abortions between 1992 and 2001. The hypocrisy of Irish law is one of the reasons I left Ireland for Spain in 2002. My boyfriend dumped me after the first abortion. I was devastated. Our two-year relationship was over. I'd lost my best friend. It was the first time in my life I felt alone. That loneliness drove me to confide in my college doctor. When I told her about my abortion, she was horrified. She kicked me out of her office. Still desperate for help, I confided in a local doctor. He, too, was disgusted by my actions. It was the first time in my life I was exposed to prejudice. I had no idea how to process it. "Don't cast your pearls before swine," says the Bible, but I didn't know that then. The reaction of those doctors plunged me into confusion and shame, and scarred me for years. I was too scar

Palestinian shot, injured at Tulkarem protest over Aqsa TULKAREM (Ma'an) 15 Sept -- Israeli forces shot and injured a Palestinian taking part in a demonstration in the northern West Bank to protest Israeli actions at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, medics said. Another five Palestinians suffered excessive tear gas inhalation during the protest, which marched to an Israeli checkpoint known as Sani Oz to the west of Tulkarem . Medical sources told Ma'an that the Palestinian was in moderate condition after he was shot in the thigh. They said he had been transferred to Thabit Ibn Thabit hospital for treatment. During the clashes, a large fire broke out in land adjacent to the Israeli checkpoint, belonging to al-Khadouri University, a Ma'an reporter said. He added that the Palestinian civil defense arrived and was attempting to control the fire. The protesters chanted slogans against Israeli violations at Al-Aqsa, and called for the compound's protection. http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=767618 Clashes erupt across East Jerusalem in wake of Aqsa violence JERUSALEM (Ma'an) 16 Sept -- Palestinian youths clashed with Israeli forces across occupied East Jerusalem on Tuesday night following three days of violent clashes at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Sources told Ma'an that clashes erupted in the East Jerusalem neighborhoods and villages of al-'Issawiya, al-Tur, Shu'afat refugee camp, Silwan, Sur Bahir, and al-Sowwana. Muhammad Abu al-Hummus, a local committee member in al-'Issawi

What Joseph should have worried about he never let himself imagine : that Ben would get up early one weekday to attend a morning minyan, a prayer group at a local syna-gogue--Ben had never done that before, but Tim, his editor, who had lost his father, asked Ben to help make a minyan, ten adult Jews required to say Kaddish--so Ben walked to the synagogue that gray morn-ing through slush, through ice, maybe sleepy, and stepped in front of a truck making an illegal turn. Just when he was on his way to perform a mitzvah, a holy deed! And the dark magician? What was He thinking? Of course it wasn't God who ran the light, but neither did He stop the driver. It's not even worth cursing God, as Job's wife suggested before she died. Like a disillusioned lover, Joseph wants nothing to do with Him. There was a time when he had faith and struggled with doubt. In college he took courses in religion and even considered studying to become a rabbi. But for a long time he'd not been taken in by God. Who could be fool enough to imagine that Ben's beauty of soul would protect him? Though he was without faith, Joseph had stayed more or less observant; he'd attend, alone or with Ellen, maybe once a month, Saturday morning services. But that was for the communality, for the friendly nosh after services. Now he's stopped going altogether: a kind of protest against his own foolishness, making demands of God. He feels a little like a furious mock-prophet--"O People, you're all being tricked by the d

Speaking in Brussels last Tuesday, Secretary of State John Kerry insisted that "We [the U.S.] are not giving up on the Syrian people, and we are not abandoning the pursuit of peace." Bullshit. The U.S. government, as everyone knows (but only a few are willing to admit), has never had any interest in stemming the violence and bloodshed that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. On the contrary, the Obama administration has been actively perpetuating it from the very beginning, through a variety of means. The armed opposition in Syria--with whose righteous cause we're supposed to sympathize--is at its core an Islamist proxy army serving the interests of external governments, most notably Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey (all allies of the U.S.), who want to see Syria's secular president replaced by a Sunni theocrat. It's always been this way. The "peaceful protests" that touched off the conflict in 2011 were anything but; many of the protesters were armed from the very beginning, prepared to use deadly force against the police and army to trigger a revolution on behalf of their state-sponsors. Was the U.S. government ignorant of these plans, concocted by its regional allies, to wage holy war on Syria? Of course not; Bashar al-Assad's was one of several regimes shortlisted for toppling following 9/11--this in spite of the fact that Assad cooperated with our "war on terror" and, unlike us, does not arm or train jihadists. The U.S. played a central role in manufacturing the Sy

More attempts - failed and successful -- to abduct Palestinians Locals: Settlers try to kidnap 7-year-old in Beit Hanina JERUSALEM (Ma'an) 4 July -- Israeli settlers attempted to kidnap a seven-year-old Palestinian child in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina overnight Thursday, locals said. Witnesses told that four settlers from Pisgat Zeev tried to kidnap Muhammad Ali al-Kiswani while he was playing in the neighborhood late Thursday after breaking the Ramadan fast. Children in the area alerted family members, who thwarted the attack, according to witnesses. The settlers fled on foot, locals said. An Israeli police spokesman could not be reached for comment. On Tuesday, Muhammad Abu Khdeir , 16, was kidnapped from the Shu'fat neighborhood and later found dead in a Jerusalem forest. His body was found badly burnt. Earlier, two settlers attempted to kidnap Mousa Zalloum , 10, in Beit Hanina, locals said. The kidnapping was reportedly thwarted by the boy's mother and local residents. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=709927 Settlers abduct Palestinian, inflict serious injuries IMEMC/Agencies 5 July by Saed Bannoura -- Palestinian medical sources in the northern West Bank city of Nablus have reported that a number of fanatic Israeli settlers kidnapped, late on Friday at night, a young Palestinian man from Osarin village, south of Nablus, and beat him nearly to death in addition to stabbing him. The setters kidnapped Tareq Ziad Zuhdi Odeily/Adeli , 22, after t

"I guess no Jewish folk had a right of return to the Arab States then and; Germany's legislation giving RoR for Jewish folk even though they are no longer refugees, AND their lineal descendants, is meaningless." Correct, they did not. Especially since they have since become Israeli citizens. Germany's RoR is a decision they made, it doesn't indicate mandatory international law, so yes, it is meaningless. "Meanwhile the UN disagrees with your unsourced opinion" From your link:"They do not, in particular, enjoy the right to return to their homes, as other nationals would do." "Israel signed Armistice Agreements and; Peace Treaties with Jordan and Egypt and; Israel is a UN Member State... No?" Yes. "As such Jordan offered temporary citizenship whilst it was the trustee" I'm sorry, "temporary citizenship?" Where does anything regarding this event mention "temporary citizenship? Jordan rejiggered its Parliment, nothing about it was intended to be temporary. And the whole "trustee" thing came after the annexation as part of a deal Iraq brokered because the Arab League wanted to expel Jordan for its behavior. Jordan certainly never intended for its annexation to be temporary nor did it do anything to advance the cause of Palestinian nationalism. The PLO in its original charter even relinquished any claim to the West Bank, (presumably as per Jordan's instructions.) Does that sound "temporary" to you? "agreed to relinquish its role to Israel in the ISRAEL-JORDAN PEACE TREATY" What are

In his testimony on Capitol Hill Tuesday, former CIA director (ret.) General David Petraeus argued that the Obama administration can and should be doing more in Syria. Petraeus proposed "the establishment of enclaves in Syria protected by coalition air power where a moderate Sunni force could be supported and where additional forces could be trained, internally displaced persons could find refuge and the Syrian opposition could organize." Presumably the plan Petraeus sketched is similar to what he advocated before resigning from his CIA post in November 2012. The difference nearly three years on is that Russia has escalated its military presence in order to defend Assad, which makes any American military action--like firing cruise missiles at Assad's air force, as Petraeus suggested--highly unlikely. Petraeus knows that if President Obama didn't want to back the Syrian rebels previously, Russia's incursion simply gives the White House another excuse not to move against Assad and his allies. Given that Petraeus has first-hand knowledge of the White House's policy and the president's tendencies, it's hard not to conclude that the purpose of the general's suggestions was largely to highlight the Obama administration's manifold failures in Syria. His testimony showed how things might have been different. And indeed Syria as well as the rest of the region, and now the growing refugee crisis might well be different had the president listened to Petraeus--or Defense Secretary Leon P

Who will save Israel from itself? By Mark LeVine One by one the justifications given by Israel for its latest war in Gaza are unravelling. The argument that this is a purely defensive war, launched only after Hamas broke a six-month ceasefire has been challenged, not just by observers in the know such as Jimmy Carter, the former US president who helped facilitate the truce, but by centre-right Israeli intelligence think tanks. The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, whose December 31 report titled "Six Months of the Lull Arrangement Intelligence Report," confirmed that the June 19 truce was only "sporadically violated, and then not by Hamas but instead by ... "rogue terrorist organisations". Instead, "the escalation and erosion of the lull arrangement" occurred after Israel killed six Hamas members on November 4 without provocation and then placed the entire Strip under an even more intensive siege the next day. According to a joint Tel Aviv University-European University study, this fits a larger pattern in which Israeli violence has been responsible for ending 79 per cent of all lulls in violence since the outbreak of the second intifada, compared with only 8 per cent for Hamas and other Palestinian factions. Indeed, the Israeli foreign ministry seems to realise that this argument is losing credibility. During a conference call with half a dozen pro-Israel professors on Thursday, Asaf Shariv, the Consul General of Israel in New York, focused more on the importanc

The US' short-sighted policy in Syria might undermine the fight against Daesh, and at worst, can lead to a larger regional conflict. A convoy of US forces armoured vehicles drives near the village of Yalanli, on the western outskirts of the northern Syrian city of Manbij on March 5, 2017. ( TRT World and Agencies ) "De Opresso Liber" (to liberate the oppressed): the motto of American special forces, ought to have a special resonance as over 500 US special force operators deploy in northern Syria. Unfortunately, misguided policy first put into motion by the Obama administration may be setting up those warfighters for failure at best, and at worst setting the stage for a broader regional conflict. As the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Dumfort meets with his Turkish and Russian counterparts in Antalya to "deconflict" their respective policies and military activity in Syria -- sometimes intersecting, often conflicting -- the northern Syrian city of Manbij has become the latest flash point between Washington, Ankara, and Moscow. In Manbij, the so-called "Syrian Democratic Forces" fought a bloody battle with Daesh. Taking the city would not have been possible without significant US military aid, a stream of close air support, and active frontline direction by forward deployed US special forces operators. What many in the Western media and punditry overlook is the history of Manbij prior to its capture by Daesh. A scene of civil demonstrations that called for the o

Sustainable Low Carbon Transport In India By Marianne de Nazareth 16 March, 2013 Countercurrents.org W hen I heard Kamala Ernest, Programme Officer, Transport Unit of UNEP, Kenya explain that India's transport sector is responsible for 14 per cent of the country's energy-related CO2 emissions in 2010--and the accompanying impacts on air quality, public health, road safety, and sustainable urban development, my ears pricked up. Living in the burgeoning metropolis of Bangalore, India, it is without a doubt that in recent years, increased vehicle use, has lead to an augmentation in congestion, accidents, and local air pollution. And we have city fathers who in their benevolence, have hacked off all our old tree avenues in the city, to broaden and widen the roads, rather than take other more viable and less polluting measures to contain the problem. If this trend continues, all of these problems will get worse, reiterates Kamala. With rising health issues across Bangalore,and that has been proven that vehicle smoke is carcinogenic, there is no doubt that something drastic needs to be done to contain this spiralling, uncontrolled growth to a more sustainable, low carbon transport level in India. UNEP Transport Unit ( www.unep.org/transport ) in Kenya, UNEP Riso Centre ( www.uneprisoe.org ) in Denmark and partners in India have happily embarked on a new initiative to support a low carbon transport pathway in India. The three-year 2.49 million Euro project is funded under the Intern

"I'm tired," says David Davis when I greet him. The former Conservative leadership candidate is running on three hours' sleep after a Question Time appearance the night before. He is cheered, however, by the coverage of his exchange with Ed Miliband. "Which country would it be be like?" the former Labour leader asked of a post-EU UK. "The country we're going to be like is Great Britain," the pro-Brexit Davis retorted The 67-year-old Haltemprice and Howden MP is at Hull University to debate constituency neighbour Alan Johnson, the head of the Labour In campaign. "As far as you can tell, it's near to a dead heat," Davis said of the referendum. "I think the run of events will favour Brexit but if I had to bet your salary, I wouldn't bet mine, I'd place it on a very narrow victory for Brexit." Most economists differ only on how much harm a Leave vote would do. Does Davis believe withdrawal is justified even if it reduces growth? "Well, I think that's a hypothetical question based on something that's not going to happen ... One of the arguments for Brexit is that it will actually improve our longer-run economic position. In the short-run, I think Stuart Rose, the head of Remain, had a point when he said there would be very small challenges. In a few years probably nothing. "The most immediate thing would likely be wage increases at the bottom end, which is very important. The people in my view who suffer from the immigration issue are those at the bottom of society, the working po

The president of a national pro-life organization that has saved thousands of babies born to abortion-determined mothers says pro-life health clinics and pregnancy centers are becoming more effective at reaching pregnant mothers and persuading them to choose life. The Human Coalition, a pro-life group that operates seven women's care clinics throughout the United States and is affiliated with over 35 pro-life pregnancy centers, also operates six "lab-driven" divisions in key "abortion-dense cities" nationwide. The labs continually run various tests to determine the optimal methods and environments that will help make its affiliated pregnancy centers, health clinics and call center more successful when it comes to saving the lives of unborn babies. As the Human Coalition has saved nearly 6,000 babies from abortion, its president and co-founder, Brian Fisher, was a featured speaker at the Family Research Council headquarters in Washington, D.C. last week. Fisher outlined a number of ways the Human Coalition and its clinics and affiliates have statistically improved the rate of abortion-determined women being reached by pro-lifers and the number of abortion-determined women who choose to carry their children to birth. 1. Target the abortion-determined marketplace In order to be most successful, pro-life pregnancy centers and clinics need to directly reach out to the pregnant women who are leaning toward aborting their children. According to Human Coalition statistics, only betw

In 2001, when my children were grown and living their own lives, I upped sticks and moved to London. Putting your stuff into storage and starting again is not what middle-aged divorced women are supposed to do. At least it's not if you listen to other people. In a way I can see what they meant. Having missed out on university and the communal living that comes with it I now chose to squeeze myself into the smallest bedroom of an east London terrace I would share with 5 strangers. Six months of endless rotas, fridge turf wars and sharing a bathroom later, I was beginning to feel the strain. The only light in this dark period was when I came home and there were no lights, meaning I had the place to myself. The gilt had thoroughly worn off the house-share gingerbread but by then I'd found my feet, revved up my career and I knew I would stay in London, at least for the foreseeable future. When I was out exploring one Saturday I found a tiny affordable flat to rent on the edge of Blackheath and there I stayed for the next 14 years, the longest I've ever lived anywhere. A year later my boyfriend of four years dropped me for being "too independent" and I began what I believe is called "a drought". Now I'd call it a benediction. It was a difficult thing to turn away from the model of womanhood I'd been brought up with. Those tenets of the 1950s and 60s that nudged me along the traditional path of school, work, a husband, babies and then... well, what? What is there to look forward to

Shot In The Head: Giffords, Hurndall And Palestinian Children 16 January, 2011 Uruknet.info T here is something particularly horrifying when someone is shot in the head. Perhaps it's the gruesome image, the destruction of the brain, the clear intent to kill. The recent shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is made even more nightmarish by the location of her devastating injury. Those of us who focus on Israel-Palestine are acutely aware of this horror. Several years ago, I was researching the cause of death of Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces during the first months of the Second Intifada, the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation. As I counted up the numbers, I was chilled to discover that the single most frequent cause of death in those beginning months was "gunfire to the head." In the past 10 years Israeli forces have killed at least 255 Palestinian minors by fire to the head, and the number may actually be greater, since in many instances the specific bodily location of the lethal trauma is unlisted. In addition, this statistic does not include the many more Palestinian youngsters shot in the head by Israeli soldiers who survived, in one form or another. Below is a small sampling of those who died. (The term IDF stands for "Israeli Defense Forces," although these forces are, in reality, an occupation army and are almost always deployed offensively; the incidents below took place on Palestinian territory): Sami, 12, died of head wound

Secularism in Turkey didn't have a natural birth. It was neither the product of a social conflict between the clerics and the politicians, nor the result of a conflict between religious and secular authorities, as was the case in Europe. It was the result of a common desire between the founders of the post-Ottoman Turkish republican regime and Europe, which wanted the country to be based on the separation of religion from the state. There was also a desire to exclude political and military leaders from the Ottoman era from the republic. Hence, founding father Kemal Ataturk brought closer those military and political leaders who were loyal to him to form the nucleus of the new republic, and kept away from those who wanted the political regime to remain as it was during the Ottoman Empire. Although some of his associates wanted the old-style politics to continue, such ideas were not approved by Ataturk, and he worked on the abolition of the caliphate in 1924 after having abolished the sultanate in 1923. The latter referred to a nationalist Turkish Republic of Anatolia, while the caliphate was a global Islamic institution and the Turks alone had no authority to abolish it. Nevertheless, that is what Ataturk did, making sure that even if the caliphate was re-instituted elsewhere -- a move that he worked to prevent -- it would have no ties with the Turkish Republic. Had the caliphate been established in another Muslim or Arab state, the secular Ataturk would have faced a lot of pr

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com Turkey suffers military setback in 'Operation Olive Branch' in Afrin, Syria Turkey doubles down on Afrin-Manbij operation, despite U.S. opposition Turkey suffers military setback in 'Operation Olive Branch' in Afrin, Syria Turkish special forces being deployed to Afrin, Syria, last month (RT) Turkey's forces suffered heavy losses on Thursday during its "Operation Olive Branch" in Afrin, with the military announcing that eight soldiers were killed and 13 more wounded, making this the deadliest day for Turkey since the Afrin operation began on January 20. Turkey's defense minister announced that, since the operation began, a total of 41 Turkish soldiers had been killed. Turkey considers the YPG Kurds to be terrorists because they are linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The PKK has perpetrated large terrorist attacks in Turkey in the last two years and has conducted an on-and-off separatist insurgency against Turkey's government for thirty years. The U.S. and the EU also consider the PKK to be a terrorist organization, though not the entire YPG. The Kurds have set as a goal the creation of an independent state of Rojava along Syria's northern border with Turkey. Turkey considers that objective to be an existential threat. Turkey launched the Afrin operation to thwart a YPG objective to establish the state of Rojava. Turkish troops are backed by an estimated 22,000 "moderate rebels" in the Free Syrian Army (FSA)

Anna Hazare and the Gandhian Ideal Anna Hazare and the Gandhian Ideal India's Anti-Corruption Movement Mitu Sengupta ▪ August 23, 2011 IN THE past week, the world has been captivated by the bitter confrontation between the Indian government and a short, bespectacled seventy-four-year-old man named Anna Hazare, a self-styled anti-corruption crusader. On August 16, Hazare's arrest and internment in Tihar Jail, South Asia's largest complex of high-security prisons, sparked candlelit marches across the country, leading a shaken government to order his release in less than twelve hours. In a stunning turnaround, Hazare refused to leave, insisting that the government remove all conditions on his "fast-unto-death" in protest of the government's recent anti-corruption legislation, which he feels is not strong enough. Hazare walked out of Tihar a national hero on August 20 and is currently lodged within the expansive public grounds of Delhi's Ramlila Maidan, surrounded by tens of thousands of supporters, national flags, and mammoth portraits of Mohandas Karamchand ("Mahatma") Gandhi. Today (Wednesday) is the ninth day he has refused to eat. As an admirer of Gandhi's, I have found the ceaseless comparisons of Hazare with Gandhi--propagated by the media, Hazare's supporters, and Hazare himself--troubling and inappropriate. I am not alone in my reservations about Hazare, who is not a popular figure within left and progressive circles in India. His movement has been portrayed, so f

Photo Credit: Clinton Global Initiative In his first major foreign policy address, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney today laid out a vision for international development steeped in Tea Party ideology, and laced with contempt for the president of Egypt, a crucial partner in U.S. diplomacy, at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York. After his introduction by former President Bill Clinton, Romney quipped, "If there's one thing we've learned this election season, it's that a few words from Bill Clinton can do any man a lot of good. After that introduction, I guess all I have to do is wait a day or two for the bounce." The reference, of course was to Clinton's speech to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte earlier this month, with the inference that the candidacy of President Barack Obama was saved by the Clinton speech. This article has been updated. For his part, Clinton, ever the master of politics, noted, with effuse gratitude, Romney's support, while governor of Massachusetts, for Clinton's big-government AmeriCorps program -- which House Republicans are trying to kill through legislation introduced in July. Probably not going to win Romney a big bounce with the GOP base. Following on his controversial remarks after the terrorist attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, earlier this month, Romney's address today was widely viewed as a test of his foreign policy chops. Earlier this month, Romney falsely accused Obama of expre

On June 27, former IDF prison guard Jeffrey Goldberg approvingly quoted an excerpt from a recent anti-Gaza Flotilla opinion piece by Irish columnist Kevin Myers. Myers' snide commentary is full of historical revisionism, factual errors, total fabrications, racist anti-Arab and Palestinian stereotyping, and an adolescent overuse of silly scare-quotes: The last 'aid flotilla' to Gaza carried a large number of Islamists who wanted to provoke: and aided by some quite astounding Israeli stupidity, they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Now another convoy is under way, and again with an utterly disingenuous plan to bring "assistance" to the "beleaguered Gazans", some of who, funnily enough, can now cross into Egypt any time they like, and buy their explosives and their Kalashnikovs in the local arms-bazaar. And as for human-rights abuses: why, nothing that Israel has done in the 63 years of its existence can possibly compare with the mass-murders of Fatah members by Hamas firing-squads over the past five years. Myers' ignorance about the goals and participants of last year's flotilla and the upcoming one is revealing. His ignorance about the Rafah Crossing is embarrassing . His comments about "beleaguered Gazans" are hideous and shameful. His weird comparison of more than six decades of ethnic cleansing, land theft, occupation, apartheid, colonization, military aggression, war crimes, assassination, and collective punishment with a few years of Palestinian factional viol

Mud, Hubris and Malevolent Urban Change: The 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi Mitu Sengupta Web Exclusive August 9, 2010 Delhi is an anxious city this monsoon season, struggling to meet an onerous deadline . Preparations are on at a feverish pace for the nineteenth Commonwealth Games, which will bear down upon town in two months (October 3-14), along with some 8500 athletes from the 71 states and territories that were once parts of the British Empire (Canada, which will send approximately 400 athletes to Delhi, has hosted the Commonwealth Games on four previous occasions: Hamilton, 1930; Vancouver, 1954; Edmonton, 1978 and Victoria 1994). Around-the-clock construction amid spells of heavy rain has turned Delhi into a swirl of mud and scaffolding. But the city's frustrated residents expect that their upturned streets, recurrent blackouts and impassable traffic jams will soon give way to something spectacular. On the horizon, or so they've been told, is the transformation of India's congested national capital into a 'world class city,' worthy not only of hosting this high-prestige sporting event, but of India's growing reputation as a the next regional superpower. This hubris-laden dream is a familiar one. It is well-known that countries compete fiercely to host global mega-events such as the Olympics and Expos (Halifax bid for 2014 Commonwealth Games, but pulled out when the province withdrew its support due to concerns over a projected budget of CAN$1.7 Billion). These 'u

Baruch Goldstein - 20 years later by David Wilder The Jewish Community of Hebron The past week or so has witnessed a spate of "Remembering Baruch Goldstein" articles and video in the international media. This because the past week marked the 20th anniversary of his attack at Ma'arat HaMachpela, the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, in Hebron. This week was also declared 'international open shuhada street week.' All the more reason for negative publications about Hebron in the world press. The later I have written about quite extensively. The former, not very much. First, to be clear. I do not agree with, or justify what Baruch Goldstein did twenty years ago. I believe I can say, as I have stated many times before, that the Jewish Community of Hebron also rejects such violence and bloodshed as a means to deal with the issues plaguing us. The reason I am so sure is simply because people do not do it. People do not go out and randomly shoot at other people, who are not endangering their lives. People here are armed. We are licensed, either by the Ministry of the Interior to carry small arms, or by the IDF, to possess rifles for reasons of self-defense, and self-defense only. Once a pistol or a rifle is in the possession of any given person, they can, theoretically, do with it whatever they want. If a person wants to go outside and start shooting people, there is nothing to stop him. The fact is that Jews don't randomly attack and shoot people, not in Hebron, and not anywher

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com Russian Trolls Popularity of Bashar al-Assad Russian shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 The future of the Mideast Russian trolls - Bruce Plante (Tulsa World, 11-Jun-2015) There have been a number of questions and comments about my recent articles on Russia's involvement in Syria. TheLastPlainsman: "It appears, Mr. Xenakis, that you are still the target of Soviet, err, I mean, Russian, trolls. At least there aren't any China ones. Today, anyway." Yes, Russia has hired hundreds of trolls to harass people like me. At one point last year, I was being attacked and harassed by three Russian trolls at the same time. In a sense, the whole policy has backfired. Every journalist by now has become aware that they'll be attacked by Russian trolls if they write anything critical of Russia. So the result is that any person who actually believes what he's saying in defense of Bashar al-Assad or Vladimir Putin is automatically assumed to be a paid Russian troll. The Russians brought this on themselves. Mickey Wasp: "It is clear from this completely fraudulent article he has penned that Mr. X is not above composing lies in order to further the nefarious agenda of the Zionist criminal enterprise known as Israel and Warmongers of Congress and the CIA. Anyone who can write a line such as "After years promising to help end the violence in Syria, Russian and Syrian warplanes have been indiscriminately attacking civilian neighborhoo

The violence was sparked after a train was set on fire in the Gujarat city of Godhra. Fifty-nine Hindus were killed, most of them known as kar sevaks , who were on their way back from Ayodhya, in India's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh. The kar sevaks were helping to build a temple to the Hindu deity Lord Ram on the site of the religiously contested sixteenth-century Babri mosque, which was razed by tens of thousands of Hindus in 1992. Retaliatory violence broke out in Gujarat soon after the Godhra arson, resulting in the death of over 1,200, most of them Muslims. Human Rights Watch said in its 2002 report, "The attacks against Muslims in Gujarat have been actively supported by state government officials and by the police." Particularly gruesome was the scale of violence against women. "Among the women surviving in relief camps, are many who have suffered the most bestial forms of sexual violence--including rape, gang rape, mass rape, stripping, insertion of objects into their body, stripping, molestations. A majority of rape victims have been burnt alive," a report by a collection of India-based NGOs said. In 2005, the US government denied Modi a visa, the first time in history Washington has blocked entry because of religious freedom violations. Modi, who was born in Gujarat in 1950, has been a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, since his childhood. The RSS was started in 1925 as a paramilitary Hindu nationalist group and today it runs around 45,000 cam

Ben Granby Jenin , Palestine 27 April 2002 It's a difficult thing to comprehend a willing descent into a place of mass suffering. Usually, such things are random and so temporary that one cannot plan for it. But to sit in relative comfort and opt to travel to such a place feels quite peculiar. Really, I wasn't sure what I was going to Jenin for. Spectator? Documenter? Exploiter? I found my way to Jenin by begging. Once arriving in Jerusalem, I went to the lush American Colony Hotel, perhaps the best known and most expensive establishment in East Jerusalem. Hence, it was the favorite locale for journalists with large expense accounts. With a $10 Danish-knock off beer in my hand, I proceeded to ask around if anyone was headed that way the next day. No luck. Then I considered the International Solidarity Movement people with whom I had been trapped in Bethlehem during the invasion three weeks prior. I rushed over to the Faisal Hostel, the favorite locale for poor college kids with no expense accounts. People there informed me that there was indeed a van headed to Jenin on the next day that I could try to join. I awoke at 6:30am on April 19 to reach the group headed to Jenin. In all there were eleven of us, with six ISM members, a Jordanian film crew, a journalist for the Irish Times and Catherine, the Director of Lawyers Without Borders. I sat next to Catherine and spoke with her about the need for international lawyers to volunteer at Palestinian human rights organization, wher

In early June 2015, on behalf of Foreign Policy News , I had a lengthy conversation with Hasan Pashali, a renowned journalist of Azerbaijan who is from the Autonomous Republic of Nakhchivan (Azerbaijan). The topic of this interview was based upon the cultural values and religious architecture of Azerbaijan, Turkey and the Caspian Sea region. Among the cultural monuments discussed was the Akhdamar Church, a religious object that has been claimed by Armenian scholars to have been built by Armenians. In relation to this issue, Mr. Pashali noted: "historical facts prove that the Akhdamar monument belongs to Gipchag Turks who adopted Christianity. In the current chain of events there is a misleading information in regards to the cultural and historical life in the region. It is clear that there are political intentions standing behind these cultural-historical discrepancies. I would like to elaborate on the two events that took place in the territory of Turkey. One of them is the interference of the Turkish Government's decision to begin religious ceremonies in the Church of Sumela located in the city of Trabzon which belonged to the Roman Empire. At the same time we want to take a different approach to the origins of Akhdamar Church which is very interesting for the history of Azerbaijan." I asked Mr. Pashali whether Armenians were the legitimate founders and builders of that church and he elaborated: "Armenians claim that Akhdamar Church located in Akhdamar island in Van l

An Israeli Historian Corrects The Record Of Israel's Founding By Florent Barat, www.palestinechronicle.com January 1, 2014 An Israeli Historian Corrects The Record Of Israel's Founding 2014-01-01 2014-01-09 https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.png PopularResistance.Org https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2014/01/Palestine-The-Nakba-150x113.jpg 200px 200px Conversation with historian Ilan Pappe: "We Don't Have the Luxury to Wait Any Longer." Ilan Pappe on the duty to ask questions Florent Barat: Ilan, you are an historian, you've published numerous books, amongst them the famous and controversial for some people "Ethnic cleansing of Palestine" in 2006. In 2007 you moved to England where you are currently teaching history at Exeter University. You are part of what is called by some people "the new historians" who give a new analysis and narrative of the history of Zionism and the history of the creation of Israel. You've taken some radical positions against the state of Israel. Why and when did you decide to stand on the Palestinians' side? And what were the consequences for you being Israeli? Ilan Pappe: Changing point of view on such a crucial issue is a long journey, it doesn't happen in one day and it doesn't happen because of one event. I've tried in one of my books called "Out of the Frame" to describe this journey out of Zionism to a critical position against Zionism. If I had to choose a formative event

Bolivia is demonstrating to the world why nationalising natural resources is a crucial first step for any government seeking to put people and the environment before profits. On May 1, 2006, less than four months after becoming president, Evo Morales decreed the nationalisation of the country's gas reserves. This move restored state control over the strategic resource. In doing so, Morales followed through with one of his key election promises and met a historic demand of the Bolivian people. The people had overthrown successive presidents unwilling to take Bolivia's gas out of the hands of greedy transnationals. Given the status of gas as Bolivia's key resource and source of wealth, it was no surprise -- this resources came to be seen as a vehicle for lifting the poorest country in the region out of its misery. Despite promises by neoliberal politicians and institutions such as the World Bank that privatisation and free market economics would lead to improved living standards, the number of Bolivians living in poverty had swelled to more than 66% by the turn of the century. The decline in state revenue due to the privatisation of the gas industry meant the Bolivian government was increasingly dependent on foreign loans to cover its shrinking budget. This began to change with the nationalisation decree and subsequent re-negotiation of contracts with gas transnationals. Under the new contracts, transnationals no longer dictate what happens in the industry. Now, the Bolivian st

Having a crush on someone is exciting. It's fun to gush over someone new, wondering if you'll ever get the chance to date them. Well... it's fun until you realize you probably won't get the chance to date them. Then, it's just heartbreaking! Do you have a crush, and you're worried they might not be as into you as you are into them? You may, unfortunately, be looking for signs he doesn't like you back . It may sound a little cliche, but the truth is, you'll usually be able to tell easily if someone you are into is into you, too. Normally, the signs will be abundantly clear that they really like you. But if it's someone that's hard to read in general, a person who's more introverted and quiet, or even just a friend you've had a for a long time that you're not sure how to interpret, you could be wondering what the signs are that they're just not that into you so you can start to get over them. It may be disheartening to find out that they don't like you the way you like them, but it's better to find out sooner rather than later. And it's especially better to find out before you invest more time into them. Here are eight signs the person you are into just doesn't like you back, despite how much you might want them to. 1. They Don't Pursue Communication If you feel like you're always the one doing the calling or texting or general communicating, they just aren't that into you. Period. It's tempting to make excuses for your crush, like they aren't that good at texting or they're j

Mud, Hubris and Malevolent Urban Change India's Commonwealth Games Mitu Sengupta Asia , Globalization November 1, 2010 As I write this introduction in New Delhi, on the eighth day of the Commonwealth Games, the city is unusually calm. Criticism of the Games, previously shrill, is also noticeably muted, though not for a lack of reasons to complain. Attendance at most competitions has been woefully inadequate, and life in the city has become unbearable, thanks to countless security checkpoints, and the looming presence of some 100,000 military and paramilitary troops. Like other Indians, however, Delhiites would rather point to the grandeur of the opening ceremony, and to the droves of athletes who have rushed to get free dental check-ups at the state-of-the-art medical clinic in the athletes' village. Indeed, all eyes are on restoring national pride, which received a sound battering in the weeks prior to the Games, when virtually every major media outlet in the West heartlessly ridiculed India's quest to play host, churning out stories about collapsing bridges, leaking sewers, cow dung and stray dogs. Such reports often delivered in demeaning, Orientalist terms that portrayed India as a primitive, chaotic place will ironically lead to the hosting of more wasteful mega-events. India seems more preoccupied than ever with showing off its resources and firepower, of which it certainly has plenty, than worrying about their mal-distribution and misuse. This attitude, as my artic

Jewish life in Israel has been at the core of my identity from the time I was a teen when I was active in Habonim Labor Zionist Youth. The return of Jews to the Land of Israel inspired me to want to be a part of creating an Israel that would serve as a light to the nations. I was so proud of being Jewish, in part because kibbutzim in Israel were an affirmation of the possibility of building communities based on human dignity and fairness. In short, I was an idealist. As I grew older and had many experiences living in Israel myself, I began to understand that ideals are a lot easier to champion than they are to implement in the real world. And though much of the Zionist movement had been rooted in high ideals, the realities of creating a nation state on land where others lived, in the wake of the Holocaust, meant that many moral compromises needed to be made. As victors of the War of Independence in 1948, Israelis and Zionists all over the world created a narrative of the founding of Israel that did not accurately portray the Jewish role in expelling Palestinians from their land during that period. In 1988 much of Israel's hitherto secret security archives were opened to the public. Many Israeli historians jumped on this opportunity. What they found was a clear record of a different narrative of events in 1948 from the one I had learned in Habonim. That research, based on primary documents, largely confirmed Palestinian versions of those events. One of the most important books

This month marks the 30th anniversary of the First Intifada, an event which fundamentally altered the profile and trajectory of the Palestinian national struggle against occupation. It shifted political leadership away from the exiled Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) leadership, reconfigured local political arrangements and, most crucially, challenged the Israeli occupation at its weakest and most vulnerable points. However, its full significance has not been, to my mind, sufficiently acknowledged, whether by international observers or by younger generations of Palestinians. This is unfortunate, as the Intifada is not purely an historical event - in my view it has much to contribute to discussions that relate to the conceptual framing, theorisation and tactics of contemporary resistance. This article does not, however, propose to engage at any of these points. It has instead been conceived and developed as a personal account which is grounded within my own perspectives and experiences. In the late 1980s, I lived in the village of Burqa, which is close to Nablus, in the northern West Bank. My home village - like the rest of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip - had been subject to Israeli occupation for two decades. At the time, the wider world knew little of this reality: insofar as it engaged with the Palestinian "question", it tended to fixate upon the diaspora refugee communities who had been at the forefront of the Palestinian struggle in Lebanon and Jordan. In the af

Frontline 14 October,2003 "Ever since I can remember, I have always identified myself as a woman. I lived in Namakkal, a small town in Tamil Nadu. When I was in the 10th standard I realised that the only way for me to be comfortable was to join the hijra community. It was then that my family found out that I frequently met hijras who lived in the city. One day, when my father was away, my brother, encouraged by my mother, started beating me with a cricket bat. I locked myself in a room to escape from the beatings. My mother and brother then tried to break into the room to beat me up further. Some of my relatives intervened and brought me out of the room. I related my ordeal to an uncle of mine who gave me Rs.50 and asked me to go home. Instead, I took the money and went to live with a group of hijras in Erode." * "My name is Sachin and I am 23 years old. As a child I always enjoyed putting make-up like `vibhuti' or `kum kum' and my parents always saw me as a girl. I am male but I only have female feelings. I used to help my mother in all the housework like cooking, washing and cleaning. Over the years I started assuming more of the domestic responsibilities at home. The neighbours started teasing me. They would call out to me and ask: `Why don't you go out and work like a man?' or `Why are you staying at home like a girl?' But I liked being a girl. I felt shy about going out and working. Relatives would also mock and scold me on this score. Every day I would go out of the hou

To step on to one of the 11 Infosys campuses across India, through the X-ray machines and past the security guards brandishing forms in triplicate, is to enter another world. Gilded and gated, these vast monuments to modernity don't look like India, sound like India or smell like India. This is not the India that most of the nation's 1.2 billion people inhabit. Part mid-1990s Silicon Valley, part Las Vegas and part Dubai, the campus in Electronics City, Bangalore - one of India's main information technology hubs; the other is Hyderabad - is all glass and steel, pristine tarmac, manicured lawns and landscaped gardens where fountains spew out recycled water almost good enough to drink. Among the nondescript office blocks there is a pastiche of I M Pei's pyramid at the Louvre, which houses a media centre that only the BBC wouldn't envy, and another of Sydney Opera House, reinvented as a food hall. This is all surpassed in scale and ambition by the company's 350-acre site in Mysore, about a four-hour drive south-east of Bangalore, in the same southern state of Karnataka. Ostensibly a training centre for recruits, the self-contained community boasts accommodation for 15,000 newly graduated engineers, shops, restaurants, a walk-in clinic, a full-sized athletics track, football pitch and cricket ground, a cinema that shows the latest films from Bollywood and Hollywood and seats more than a thousand people, and luxury two-storey villas for passing executives and potential clients. Ou

Teh - I have chosen to answer many different issues and people's prior comments by addressing them in your format of 5 sections. This post is not a total attack against your position. If it comes off as such I didn't mean it in that way and apologize. 1.) Women in positions outside of the traditional woman's role is it more egalitarian? Well , I would say both yes and no. Yes, I think it is pretty obvious in that if different bodied categories and social categories are required representation that there is more of a chance that the issues specific to such groups will more then likely be heard, raised, dealt with, etc... Also, I think there is something to be said about a society's view on gender and the sexes if women are less compartmentalized into certain roles. For instance, and I will make broad comparisons to make 4 points: (a) There are way more women Chinese executives , leaders, and women in positions of authority in "communist china" than in Western countries due Chinese urban life being more neutral on the issue; Israeli women fight in their armed forces along side men without much discussion because Israel is more neutral on the issue of gender; The Black Panther Party had a more neutral view on gender and women worked along side men in a more equal environment; Women in the Zapatistas and Chiapas work and struggle alongside men in a more equal environment; radical leftist and anarchists groups have, at times, organized and structured their groups with a need for l

Violence / Detentions -- West Bank / Jerusalem Palestinian teen first to be killed by Israel in 2018 Al Jazeera 3 Jan by Zena Tahhan -- Israeli forces have shot dead a Palestinian teen on the northern outskirts of the occupied West Bank town of Ramallah, according to Palestinian officials. The Palestinian health ministry identified the 17-year-old boy as Mus'ab Firas al-Tamimi from the village of Deir Nitham , where Wednesday's shooting took place. "He died shortly after the occupation forces fired a bullet into his neck," Maria Aqraa, a spokesman for the ministry, told Al Jazeera. "He was transferred to a hospital in Ramallah and he passed away minutes later," she added. Aqraa said Mus'ab was shot during a confrontation with the Israeli army. According to the Times of Israel news website, the Israeli army said Mus'ab had "appeared to be holding a gun", but that it was "not immediately confirmed that al-Tamimi had been armed at the time of the shooting". An army spokesperson reportedly told the website that the circumstances of Mus'ab's killing were being investigated. 'The world is just silently watching' Mus'ab was a member of the Tamimi family, who live in the adjacent village of Nabi Saleh , where a prominent teen activist was arrested on December 19. Ahed Tamimi was filmed slapping a soldier standing outside her home, after Israeli forces had shot her 15-year-old cousin in the face with a rubber bullet. The family has been persecuted for years by the Israeli army which

A lot of non-believer writers and activists focus, rightly, on the continuing lack of acceptance in many societies and nations of those who profess no belief in religion. Keeping an eye on what's not working is the first step toward making improvements. Still, in many places around the world, this is an unprecedented era for non-believers of freedom and social acceptance. In the spirit of celebrating the amount of progress secularism has made around the world, here's a list of eight of the best countries in which to be a non-believer. 1) Czech Republic. Many former communist nations saw their populations eagerly run back to the forbidden religions as soon as they were free to do so, demonstrating that the least effective way to spread atheism around is by mandate. The Czech Republic hasn't seen any such return to religion, however; only 21% of its citizens consider religion an important part of their daily lives. They seem to be hanging on to secularism for roughly the same reason that they do pretty well in international sports competitions. Unlike most Eastern European nations, the Czech Republic rates high on the United Nation's Human Development Report. It hasn't been riddled by the corruption and authoritarian attitudes that dominate other former communist nations, such as Russia. A mountain of evidence demonstrates that stable, egalitarian economies correlate strongly with higher rates of atheism. It seems that the government's demonstration of faith in its people

When 25-year-old Shani Boianjiu served as an infantry instructor in the Israel Defense Forces, her job occasionally involved touching other soldiers--teaching her students how to hold a gun correctly, how to lie on the ground in position, how to protect themselves from enemy attack. Although this was an essential part of the job and made her an excellent instructor, it also caused problems for certain soldiers--that is, for religious male soldiers. I came up behind him and put both hands on his shoulders, shaking him. I wanted to explain, 'Look how easy it is for me to shake you out of position,' but I couldn't, because the soldier was yelling at me like he was on fire. I couldn't make out what he was saying, but he was still in training and I was shocked by his disobedience. I thought maybe he was confused, so I bent down in the sand and grabbed his foot, moving it so that his toes pointed forward. If anything, he screamed louder. It was only when the drill ended that I caught what he was saying: 'I observe touch.' What this meant was that he couldn't touch or be touched by girls or women. I was his superior and trainer, but I was also a girl. Female soldiers have made tremendous strides in Israel over the past two decades. According to the IDF, women make up 33 percent of the whole armed forces; female officers with the rank of colonel grew by 100 percent in the past 13 years, from 2 percent of all colonels in 1999 to 4 percent today; and the share of female officers with

As demands for farm-loan waivers grow across Punjab , Haryana , Tamil Nadu , Gujarat , Madhya Pradesh , and Karnataka -after Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra wrote off loans worth Rs 36,359 crore and Rs 30,000 crore respectively-India faces a cumulative loan waiver of Rs 3.1 lakh crore ($49.1 billion), or 2.6% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2016-17. A waiver of this scale could pay for the 2017 rural roads budget 16 times over or pay for 443,000 warehouses or increase India's irrigation potential by 55% more than the achievements of the last 60 years. Farm Loan Waivers Being Demanded State Waiver being demanded Small & Marginal Farmers In The State Source Uttar Pradesh* Rs 36,359 crore 9.4 million Hindustan Times Maharashtra* Rs 30,000 crore 3.4 million Economic Times Punjab Rs 36,600 crore 1.7 million Live Mint Madhya Pradesh Rs 56,047 crore 6.3 million Hindu Business Line Gujarat Rs 40,650 crore 3.2 million Hindu Business Line Haryana Rs 56,000 crore 1 million Indian Express Tamil Nadu Rs 7,760 crore 1.9 million The Hindu Karnataka Rs 52,500 crore 5.9 million DailyO Note: *Uttar Pradesh & Maharashtra have sanctioned the farm loan waivers. While such waivers could provide succour for 32.8 million indebted farmers, an IndiaSpend analysis of the impact of previous farm-loan waivers indicates such bailouts are band-aids of uncertain efficacy and do not address a deeper malaise gripping India's agrarian economy. Over nine years to March 2017, the central and state

AMY GOODMAN : We turn now to Israel, where tens of thousands of people have joined nationwide protests against high costs of living and growing income inequality, setting up more than 40 tent encampments scattered throughout Israel. Yesterday representatives of the 10 camps released an agreement outlining their demands to the government, which include lowering taxes, increasing access to education and housing. Police estimate as many as 120,000 people turned out nationwide to support a movement that's been picking up momentum in recent weeks. In Jerusalem, some 15,000 people gathered outside the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Thousands also marched in the capital Tel Aviv. ZEEV SHALEV : [translated] I am here at the tent camp because I don't see myself continuing to live in a country that exploits its citizens, doesn't provide solutions for housing, education, transportation, and basic conditions for its citizens. And I am not moving from here until this situation changes. AMY GOODMAN : To find out more about what's happening in Israel, we're going to Tel Aviv to speak with Dimi Reider, an Israeli journalist, co-editor of 972 Magazine . That's 972mag.com . He's been covering the protests. His work appears in Foreign Policy , The Guardian , Ha'aretz , the Jerusalem Post and other publications. Welcome to Democracy Now! Dimi, describe what is happening and the significance of these protests, and how it relates to the ongoing crises in the Occupied Territories. DIMI

A Palestinian is treated for burns at a hospital in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, 12 January 2009. (Hatem Omar/ MaanImages ) 2:30pm Gaza Time (+2hrs GMT ) The Israeli Occupation Forces ( IOF ) escalated its war on the Gaza Strip for the 17th consecutive day, during which it has acted in violation of the rules of international law relevant to conflict and belligerent occupation, motivated by the failure of the international community to stand for the principles and rules itself had set. There is evidence indicating the perpetration of grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War. IOF 's attacks on civilian targets, public infrastructure and border areas have brought about enormous destruction of private property and infrastructure, as well as unprecedented loss of life. According to Al Mezan's careful monitoring, the IOF has killed at least 876 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since the start of its Operation Cast Lead on 27 December 2008. This number includes at least 186 children and 61 women. This number is restricted to those whom Al Mezan has verified and double-checked. The Center estimates that between 200 and 240 children have been killed. Many of those have still been under the rubble of houses under areas under IOF 's invasion. Moreover, tens of children who were killed on the first day of the attacks have not yet been verified; therefore, the Center prefers to wait until they are accounted for properly. Si

Most Popular Or is such simplicity itself--in this pathologically gnarled context--the most slyly sophisticated sort of complication? Like his movies, his presence here sends one wandering down a fascinating, disarming hall of mirrors. These are strange days in Jerusalem. On the eve of the month of Ramadan and at the height of summer vacation--as, nearby, Egypt seethes and Syria smolders--the city is both more bustling and more bewildering than ever, and Makhmalbaf's unlikely appearance only underscores the confusing nature of this Middle Eastern cultural moment. In the upscale Jewish neighborhoods on the western side of town, things are looking surprisingly swank. Petunias have been planted en masse in the municipal parks. A hundred new street cleaners have been enlisted by city hall to sweep up after the hordes crowding the pedestrian malls. The Ottoman-era train station--derelict for decades--has been tastefully refurbished and has just opened its doors as an elegant entertainment compound featuring chic restaurants, an airy gallery, and a pretty, landscaped foot and bike path that runs, High Line-style, along the old tracks. Mahaneh Yehudah, the outdoor market, is booming. Alongside the well-established vegetable and spice stands, funky bars and trendy cafes have popped up; the place is teeming with locals and tourists, old ladies dragging shopping carts and young hipsters taking drags from their hand-rolled cigarettes. Palestinians, too, mingle easily in this mix, in l

Violence / Raids / Suppression of protests / Arrests Two detained teens speak of abuse, torture IMEMC 15 Dec by Saed Bannoura -- Heba Masalha, a lawyer working for the Palestinian Detainees Committee, managed to visit two Palestinian teens held by Israel, who testified to her of horrific abuse and torture by the soldiers and the interrogators. On December 13, Masalha visited detainee Mahmoud Ahmad Hadra, 17 years of age, from the at-Tour town, in occupied East Jerusalem, held at the HaSharon Israeli prison. Hadra told Masalha that when the soldiers broke into his family home to kidnap him, on July 21 2014, undercover officers assaulted him, and a soldier fired a rubber-coated metal bullet, wounding him in his leg, and causing serious bleeding. He added that the soldiers, and undercover officers, then attacked him, and started kicking, beating and punching him, in addition to striking him with their rifles, causing injuries to various parts of his body, especially to his head ... On his part, detainee Mahmoud Jamil Gheith, 17, from Silwan town in Jerusalem, and currently held at the HaSharon prison, said he was kidnapped on October 26 2014, at around 10 at night. He was standing in front of his family home when a number of undercover soldiers assaulted him, and started kicking and beating him all over his body. Gheith said the soldiers were punching him, kicking him, striking him on the head and back with their rifles, before they threw him onto the ground and dragged him for

Paul Burrows The Electronic Intifada 2 October 2005 TO PROFESS " NEUTRALITY " IN THE FACE OF INJUSTICE IS TO SIDE WITH THE OPPRESSOR , SAYS CANPALNET - WINNIPEG In a press release dated September 28th, 2005, B'N ai Brith Canada claimed that the 2nd Annual Canada Palestine Film Festival, which opens today at Winnipeg's prestigious Cinematheque theatre, is "about propaganda not art." The implication, of course, is that defending the State of Israel -- regardless of its behaviour -- can be "objective" and "artistic," whereas criticizing Israel's actual human rights record, or portraying Palestinians as human beings with legitimate claims to self-determination, is by definition "propaganda," or worse: anti-Semitism. CanPalNet-Winnipeg rejects such simple-minded claims to "objectivity," as well as chauvinistic double-standards which suggest that Jews and Israelis alone can express "artistic" views and sensibilities in relation to the Israel-Palestine conflict; Palestinians apparently cannot. In their press release, B'N ai Brith legal counsel David Matas repeats his annual claim that "the very title of this year's festival, 'Occupation Will Still Be Televised,' denotes an attitude that is a priori prejudicial and harmful to Israel, and blatantly misrepresents the facts on the ground." Never mind the fact that many Israelis, including the "refusenik" soldiers interviewed in the Israeli documentary "On the Objection Front," believe that it is the Occupation itself that is "prejudicia

Outrageous as the claims may sound, it is nothing new. Israel has time and again blamed Palestine and Palestinians for things that defy common sense. It's not enough that Israeli soldiers gunned down 15-year-old Palestinian Mahmoud Baderan. Now a spokesman from the Israeli Foreign Ministry blames Palestine itself for the boy's untimely death from an "accidental" shooting . The teen was fatally shot by the IDF, who apparently mistook him for a terrorist who injured three Israelis with rocks earlier in the day. Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon responded to the Palestinians by accusing the Palestinian Authority of inciting violence against Israel. "If it weren't for the difficult security situation, which is entirely the fault of Palestinian incitement and terrorism, Israel wouldn't have been forced to make use of lethal force in order to protect its citizens," he said . "Unfortunately the list of Israelis killed by stones thrown by Palestinians at roads is a long list and every injured Israeli is proof of the need for taking security measures," he added. Israel is no stranger to placing blame on Palestine for Israel's own actions. The Israeli government also blamed Palestinian authorities for the water shortage crippling Palestine. Israel cut off water supplies to large areas of West Bank in the sweltering heat, with no regard to the ongoing month of Ramadan, a period when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. According to Uri Schor, the Water Authority spokesman,

A Black day awaits the British constitution and a very puzzling one for those whose misfortune it is to have to foretell the future in the entrails of a general election. The bellwether (and if one's going to mix one's metaphors, one really should start early) for the forthcoming calamity is 20-year old Mhairi Black who looks like defeating the Labour bigwig Douglas Alexander. This will be the icing on an SNP landslide, tolling the death-knell for the British Labour Party north of the border, at which point, no amount of metaphors, plain or mixed, shaken or stirred, with no olive or just plain dirty, will convey the confusion that must follow. For the virtual extinction of all pro-union parties can only be seen as an irresistible mandate for Scottish independence. So where does everyone go from here? I mean everyone: the UK, the EU, the US, the UN, even God help us, U2. (It's often a sign of secessionism being in the air when people start doing funny things with their names. Presumably Mhairi was once Mary. Ewan MacColl was once Henry Miller. Eamon de Valera, the legendary Irish politician, began life as Eddie Coll). Unions between peoples require a certain mystical component, a magic that will generate peculiar and indefinable bonds. These are the habits, affections and customs that make for a pleasant marriage. To create a ledger of who does what, and who does not, as Scotland has been doing, usually ungenerously and inaccurately, is certain to destroy the unifying magic.

On July 20 at least thirty-two people were killed and at least 100 people were wounded by an ISIS suicide bomber. The attack took place in the Turkish town of Suruc, which stands only thirty miles away from the Syrian border. The victims, members of the Federation of Socialist Youth Associations (SGDF), were part of a 300-person contingent en route to Kobani to assist in reconstruction efforts. The group consisted of a number of Turkish and Kurdish anarchist and socialist youth. As such, the solidaristic venture represented a major effort to create further bridges between the broader Turkish left and the Kurdish left. There have been suggestions of Turkish collusion with the attack in Suruc. As noted in the Kurdish Question , there was considerable Turkish military presence in Suruc. Kurdish filmmaker Garip Celik took video of the explosion, and he has asserted that it took place within the SGDF crowd. Celik also asserts Turkish "police searched all buses carefully but skipped ours." Whether or not Turkey colluded in some way with the attack, Turkey has capitalized on the event--as well as countering to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) killing of two Turkish police--by attacking the Kurds. Ostensibly, Turkey is entering the war against ISIS. Inside the 28-member state North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Suruc massacre has been framed as an attack on Turkey. For only the fifth time in 66 years, an Article 4 meeting was called, allowing NATO members to seek consulta

At best, the EU is bumbling in a completely misguided way to tackle the refugee crisis stemming from the Syrian conflict; at worst, and more accurately, the European bloc is effectively rewarding Turkey for an act of state terrorism. This crass move by Brussels will serve to embolden the Ankara regime in its criminal policy of fuelling regime change in Syria. It will also deepen the EU's complicity in a criminal war of aggression on Syria. While European citizens are suffering economic austerity, soaring poverty and unemployment their governments see fit to indulge the Ankara regime with 3 billion ($3.4 billion). - Advertisement - Let's get some facts straight. Russia's Ministry of Defence has released objective flight data which shows beyond doubt that on November 24, Turk F-16 fighter jets violated the Syrian border and fired an air-to-air missile at a Russian Su-24 bomber. The Russian aircraft was at all times within Syrian territory and posed no threat to Turkey's security. The Russian data also shows that two Turkish F-16s were already in the air in the location. The timely presence of a Turkish film crew and Syrian militia on the ground awaiting the Russian jet crash also substantiates claims by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that this was a "planned ambush" that resulted in the brutal killing of a Russian pilot and later a Russian soldier attempting a rescue mission. On the same day -- Sunday -- that the EU announced its 3 billion payout to Turkey, the Ankara r

Above photo: Gezi Park, Istanbul on June 13, 2013 (Source: http://everywheretaksim.net) Discovering the Commons: New Media, Social Movements and Social Cohesion In her article on Opendemocracy.net, researcher Britta Ohm describes 'Gezi' events not as a solidarity movement or as something within the confines of an anti-government protest that international media have insisted on seeing, but as the tentative discovery of commonness through the very defense of commons. We have previously mentioned the central role of post-materialist values, collective identity construction and the commons in new social movements in Part II; and in Gezi case, these seemed to have converged bringing about a new societal awareness, by uniting many different and opposing groups in the society and transforming former misperceptions and prejudices. Starting with a global common, 'the environment', with a protest against an imposed life style centered around consumerism as symbolized by trees versus shopping malls, the movement evolved into a crossroads, where people coming from different backgrounds and struggles came together, lived together and acted together that nurtured a novel understanding of societal ethics and co-existence. In fact, Turkish politics and underlying power struggles have long been shaped on ideological, ethnical and religious fragmentations based on pragmatic aims and symbols. This resulted in a conversion of innate differences or cultural and ethnic identities, which actually

Israelis celebrate Israel's 65th Independence Day on the streets of Jerusalem, Monday, April 15, 2013 (Photo: Miriam Alster/Flash90/Times of Israel) "Do you speak Hebrew," he asked in me (in Hebrew). "No, but I speak Arabic. Do you speak Arabic?" I replied (in Arabic) to the drunk twenty-something Israeli at an ATM in West Jerusalem. He looked at me for a moment like he was hearing gobbledygook. Then -- "Arabs! I hate Arabs!" he exclaimed throwing his arms up for the big finale: "They want to kill us! They want to kill us! I hate Arabs!" Abruptly a journalist friend pulled me away thinking that the conversation would turn to blows. The night was Yom Haatzmaut, the April 15-16th celebration of Israel's 1948 declaration of Independence. The air was full of irresponsibility. Myself, I was foolish to think I could put up a defense in a street beating--"there's two of us and he's shorter than me," I said. My friend, however, was less interested in his colleague goading a racist to punch us, despite how righteous our bruises would be. Nearby on Yaffa Street there was a flood of other drunk Israelis. Intersections to side roads that sheltered rows of bars were blocked by checkpoints. Security officers loosely patted down bags and stopped the occasional pedestrian. The hired hands gave me the impression that they were not looking for things, but persons--and by persons I mean Palestinians. Although I cannot say this definitively, it is widely known that there are only two bars in Wes

Published 7:26 AM, July 16, 2014 Updated 7:26 AM, July 16, 2014 SLEEPING. Israeli infantry soldiers sleep next to their APC's (Armoured Personnel Carriers) in a field along the southern Israeli border with the Gaza Strip, early July 15, 2014. Jim Hollander/EPA. JERUSALEM (UPDATE) - Israel resumed a punishing air campaign against Gaza Tuesday, July 15, after its Palestinian foe Hamas rejected a truce and fired dozens of rockets over the border, killing an Israeli for the first time. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the army would "expand and intensify" its Gaza operation after Hamas rejected the Egyptian truce proposal. The renewed Israeli strikes killed five Palestinians, raising the Gaza death toll in eight days of violence to 197, medics said. An Israeli man was killed in a rocket attack on an Israeli position near the Erez crossing with Gaza, the army said. Hamas's Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades armed wing said it carried out the attack. The civilian had been delivering food to soldiers serving in the area, a spokesman for the Israeli emergency services told Agence France-Presse. Police later named him as Dror Hanin, 37, of the West Bank settlement Beit Aryeh. The first Israeli death of the conflict came after nearly 1,000 rockets and mortar rounds hit the Jewish state. Four Israelis have been seriously wounded. Early Tuesday, Israel's security cabinet said it would accept an Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire to begin at 0600 GMT. But Hamas officials said the

Terrorism remains a highly subjective and multifaceted phenomenon that defies a universally accepted definition. If highly politicised nature of terrorism leads to different interpretations, the multiplicity of its nature and manifestations is another important reason for the lack of consensus on the definition of terrorism. Moreover, the threat of terrorism differs from country to country, occurring in many guises with the acts justified by different ideologies and grievances. This makes countering terrorism as difficult as defining it. However, there can be no doubt that the acts of terrorism constitute a challenge to a country's constitutional authority. India's counter-terrorism efforts have witnessed a mix of achievements and failures. But overall, it could be convincingly argued that India's counter-terrorism strategy has continued to be largely ill-defined, reactionary, and lacking in coherence. Some of the responses have instead created unanticipated negative consequences, and this is troublesome considering that a huge amount is spent on the fight against terrorism. File image of 26/11 terror attack. PTI It is very strange that when all the countries are deeply affected by terrorism, India is yet to devise an institutionalised mechanism to counter it. As India does not have a single unified authority that could coordinate the operations of various intelligence and counter-terror agencies for ensuring a quick response in times of crisis like the 26/11 Mumbai terror at

Why Offense is the Best Defense Against Russia and Iran in Syria Tony Badran 20th March 2018 - Hoover Institute In January, the Trump administration unveiled its strategy for Syria. In an address at the Hoover Institution, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson laid out five key objectives, in the process, made clear that the top priority was containing Iran. The US, he said, would deny Iran the "arch" it is building from Tehran to the Mediterranean, and it would prevent Iran from using Syria as a springboard from which to threaten neighboring countries. These goals make perfect sense now, and they should have appeared equally cogent to the Obama administration as well. Rather than pursue them, however, President Obama allowed Tehran to expand its influence in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon (to say nothing of Yemen). He also turned a blind eye to Russia's intervention in Syria which only served to strengthen Iran and to help it consolidate its gains. The result has been a strain on US regional alliances and NATO, along with the reemergence of Russia as a revisionist power in the eastern Mediterranean. In practical terms, however, an effective Iran strategy would also contain Russia, which is almost completely dependent on Iran for ground troops in Syria. But this requires a shift in American thinking. For the past decade, counterterrorism has dominated US policy in the region. Washington's attention has been focused on non-state actors such as ISIS, which has led to ignoring, or even

ON THE surface, Barack Obama's recent three-day visit to India was a celebration of democracy, diversity and global friendship, complete with colorful costumes and a cheery Bollywood soundtrack. At times, this was literally true. Obama's final public appearance in India--a speech at Siri Fort auditorium--ended with the song "Mitwa" ("Friend") from the Bollywood blockbuster Lagaan (2001) blasting from the speakers as Obama joined an adoring audience. If the selection of the feel-good film showed the Obama team's multicultural savvy, the song lyrics underlined the themes of the India trip: Listen friend, my friend Why are you afraid? This whole earth is ours This sky, it's all ours Come, join us! But the expansive humanity of the song is undercut when we grasp the reality of what happened at the U.S.-India summit in New Delhi. Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi laid the groundwork for continuing the military, economic and strategic deals between the two countries that have more to do with geopolitical maneuvering and enriching corporations than friendliness and global citizenship. President Obama visits with Indian President Narendra Modi (Pete Souza) That's why the ruling classes of each country are happily singing today. The earth and sky are indeed theirs after the deals that Obama and Modi made on nuclear technology, exports and defense. Wiped away, ironically, is that in the movie, "Mitwa" is a recruitment song for a struggle against colonial greed. Peasants, try

THE SECOND-ever "Global Frackdown" day of action set to take place the weekend of October 19. Actions will be held in half of the 50 states and in more than 20 countries around the world. The first Global Frackdown, in September 2012, drew participation from 200 community actions across 20 countries, so this year's event is on track to surpass those numbers. With the protests coming up, it's a good opportunity to review the record of ecological damage left behind by fracking, and to consider the root causes of the global addiction to fossil-fuel combustion. Fracking involves drilling wells deep into shale rock formations under the earth's surface, and then pumping millions of gallons of water, sand and other chemicals at very high pressure through the wells. This process fractures shale rock formations, allowing the extraction of previously inaccessible natural gas and shale oil (also known as "tight oil"). The process of fracking has been promoted by the oil and gas industry as a solution to the problem of "peak oil" (that is, the global depletion of conventional crude oil reserves), but also to global warming. Industry hacks make these outlandish claims with the assertion that no "proven research" shows fracking to be unsafe while their own industry-sponsored studies shows that fracking is an ecologically sound practice. New Yorkers protest to demand an end to fracking (Adam Welz) In reality, fracking not only intensifies climate change, but it also devastates public health

Jeffrey A. Rendall | 3/2/2016 The waiting is finally over to see how Super Tuesday might have changed the dynamic in the Republican presidential nomination race and the result was to unquestionably determine it's down to two men. Donald Trump is one of them, of course, having added seven wins to his previous three to take an impressive but not insurmountable lead in the overall delegate count. Ted Cruz is the other man still standing, taking three victories - a huge seventeen-point win in his home state of Texas and solid showings in neighboring Oklahoma and the great northwest territory of Alaska as well. It's funny how Sarah Palin's endorsement of Trump didn't stop Cruz from prevailing in her home state. Yet another curiosity to add to this year's contest. Meanwhile, Marco Rubio did manage to get his first win in insignificant and liberal Minnesota and also came within three points of Trump in Virginia, a result which he and the media tried desperately to spin into some sort of a big deal, but nowhere else was the Florida senator even close to beating the bombastic reality TV star or Cruz. It looks like Marco finished second in a few other states but even in those he was competing closely with Ted Cruz for the runner-up spot. Most notably, Rubio failed to break the 20% minimum threshold for delegates in Texas and Alabama, meaning he was completely shut out in those states. By far the biggest overall loser on Super Tuesday, however, was the Washington Republican establishmen

Syria was in a better position to attain peace last spring, when a ceasefire had unexpected success. It would have been better if the rebels had been able to keep East Aleppo and the rest of their territory, and the regime had been forced to dicker with them in order to put the country back together again. Someday it might even have been possible for East Aleppo to elect representatives to the Syrian parliament who represented their point of view. The fall of the East Aleppo pocket dooms such a negotiated outcome of the civil war. The regime of Bashar al-Assad will be emboldened, as it has pledged, to try to take back over all the territory militarily, and to re-institute its seedy one-party state replete with intensive domestic spying, arbitrary arrest and torture. That said, the rebel forces in East Aleppo do bear some of the blame for their defeat. It seems a harsh thing to say at a time of heart-wrenching scenes of noncombatants waiting in the cold for an evacuation that only seems to come in fits and starts. But it is necessary for us to understand what is happening and not only to feel it. Because al-Assad is understandably hated in democratic societies, there is a tendency to see the reassertion of the regime there as purely an act of brutal force. It is at least that, of course. Russian and Syrian aerial bombing of a dense urban area has killed noncombatants in ways that are likely war crimes. But this brutality cannot explain what happened. Revolutions and ci

Despite the "jobless" character of the economic recovery and expansion since late 2001, the Federal Reserve remains on a determined course to raise interest rates. It has already raised its federal funds target 11 times since late 2004. Part of the justification for the Fed's relentless policy is the impressive decline in the unemployment rate over the last two years, from 6.1 percent in mid-2003 to 5.1 percent in September. This fall in the unemployment rate, while welcome, does not in fact signal a strong labor market. A full four years into the recovery, the unemployment rate remains well above pre-recession levels (which reached 3.9 percent). But the unemployment rate itself is an inadequate measure of the availability of jobs. As the unemployment rate has fallen, the share of the working age population with jobs has remained at levels well below those reached during the previous economic expansion. This share was 62.8 percent in September compared to 64.4 percent in September 2000. At this rate, there would have been approximately 3.6 million more jobs in the economy in the fall of 2004. Of equal concern, however, the standard unemployment rate provides no measure of the quality of jobs. To provide a more comprehensive measure of labor market performance, we developed two new indicators. They both add further evidence that the labor market in the current expansion has not returned to the strength achieved in the economic expansion of the late 1990s. The first of our new

Most Popular In her new book, On Immunity , Biss crosses a threshold into a completely different subject--inoculation in America--but enters it through a familiar door. A private security concern gives rise to a meditation on public security, primarily public health. The book begins with--and always returns to--Biss's concern for the health of her young son. Worry over how many shots her son is receiving leads her to the Internet, where she invariably stumbles across the anti-vaccination conspiracy theories of the American right, which decry adjuvant injections as hotbeds of diabetes, asthma, allergies and autism. Although Biss is skeptical of parents who accept these theories wholesale, she is sympathetic to their fears and even suffers her fair share of anxiety over her son's collateral chemical intake. She remembers the time she called her husband in tears because she had read online that the plastic cover on her son's mattress might release toxic gases, according to "preliminary research." Biss's central thesis is that "The natural body meets the body politic in the act of vaccination, where a single needle penetrates both." This is an ambitious and wide-ranging area of exploration. The ways in which our bodies come into contact with and are circumscribed by the state are seemingly endless. Yet following the thread of this argument through the book is often like trying to find a hypodermic needle in a haystack. In one section, Biss writes about the sterilization of vaccin

The history of the Palestinian cause since the 1948 Nakba has been linked to a lengthy list of legal and moral violations against innocent people; a lot of their blood has been spilt. This has produced arguably the greatest level of human suffering of modern times, to which the international powers have contributed by harnessing the law in favour of rogue terrorist gangs. Having such powers behind them, those gangs were able to establish a country upon the remnants of a peaceful population of an ancient civilisation reflected in their land, identity and culture. The rest of the indigenous people were driven off the land at gunpoint, in a stark example of what we now call ethnic cleansing. This is the first time in modern politics that we have ever witnessed such a "surrogate" state, which uprooted the existing population and has sought ever since to eradicate their existence and history. Israel has lived up to its stated intent to be an "outpost of [Western] civilisation against barbarism" having been planted in a region which shares the faiths, language and general culture of the Palestinians. In order to accomplish the international conspiracy and criminal intent of this "surrogate" state, the process has been carried out regardless of the history and culture of the land in which it was established, against the wishes of the indigenous population it must be said. Since taking over 78 per cent of historic Palestine, the occupation state has shredded the remaining land, "in a

No matter how pessimistic the prospects may seem to Palestinians, parents in Palestine refuse to give up on educating their children. Education is valued as a step to resisting Israel's brutal occupation, in addition to being an important tradition for generations. In Gaza, 93% of children are in primary education. The average enrolment rate drops to 67% at secondary level, with around a 75% enrolment rate for girls and a 59% enrolment rate for boys (many are sent to work earlier to support their families). Even after the last attack on Gaza in the summer of 2014, over half a million children bravely returned to their schools which were scarred with the marks of war. However, Palestinians in Gaza face a further challenge when it comes to education; the impact of psychological trauma. Children endure a siege which has prevented basic humanitarian supplies from entering Gaza and those aged six and above have lived through three wars. The latest psychological assessment amongst students in Gaza by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2010 showed that 60% of primary school children were constantly angry. After the 2012 attacks, cases of children suffering from PTSD spiked to 92%. United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories Makarim Wibisono stated that there was not a single child that was not been adversely affected by the violence during the recent attack. He announced in his press rele

The Long March of the Canadian Peace Movement David Langille Social Movements May 2, 2008 The Canadian peace movement has just held a series of marches to mark the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq and to call on the Canadian government to end our military involvement in Afghanistan. A majority of Canadians want the troops home, and over sixty per cent oppose extending the mission past 2009. Yet, almost every Liberal MP lined up with the Conservatives on March 13 to support Stephen Harper's plan to extend Canada's mission in Afghanistan to 2011. The obvious question being asked in the media - and echoed by many within the progressive community - is: Why hasn't the peace movement been able to translate this sympathetic public opinion into public policy? It is helpful at times like these to reflect back on the history of the Canadian peace movement, to assess our strengths and weaknesses and the lessons learned by generations of activists. I invited several long-time peace activists to share their thoughts and experiences. The Sixties The Sixties began with the Ban the Bomb movement and closed with the struggle against the Vietnam War. The early peace movement depended upon leadership from the Canadian churches, from women's groups like the Voice of Women and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, as well as from communists and socialists active in unions and the Canadian Peace Congress. These three groups provided the continuity that sustained the movem

Palestinians receive their monthly food supplies from the UN Relief and Works Agency, ( UNRWA ), at a warehouse in the Rafah Refugee Camp in the southern Gaza Strip April 19, 2006. Agencies have warned the Israeli Foreign Ministry that the Gaza Strip is on the verge of a humanitarian crisis. ( MaanImages /Hatem Omar) With Hamas in control of the Palestinian Authority ( PA ) government, and Western donors are halting all direct aid to it, an already precarious humanitarian situation in the West Bank and Gaza could potentially turn worse. Virtually bankrupt, the PA needs $120 million a month to pay its staff, and an additional $40 million for continued minimum basic services to its constituency. With Israel suspending the transfer of $60 million a month in Palestinian customs receipts, the $35 million the PA collects each month in domestic revenues are not enough to keep it afloat. If financial squeeze persists, it could lead to PA institutional collapse and trigger an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian areas. Failure to pay salaries would leave close to 160,000 PA workers, and over million other Palestinians supported by them u or about 25 percent of the population - with no means to subsist. And when alternative jobs are virtually non-existent, and over one third of the Palestinian workforce is already jobless, it could get real bad. Worse yet, in today's increasingly lawless PA , where maintaining law and order comes in a close tie with the need for jobs as

Welcome to The Week in Reproductive Justice, a weekly recap of all news related to the hot-button issue of what lawmakers are allowing women to do with their bodies! High-profile, pro-choice lawmakers often skirt the topic of abortion or avoid saying the word itself, opting instead to discuss women's health more broadly, because let's face it: Abortion, despite being safe, legal, and absolutely necessary health care, remains mired in stigma, but in light of Donald Trump's Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, an anti-choice extremist whose record gives us every reason to believe he would vote to dismantle abortion rights, discussing abortion upfront has become inevitable. This week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren penned a fiery, passionate, and smart op-ed about what Kavanaugh means for Roe in Marie Claire ; Sen. Patty Murray did not mince words in a Senate floor speech , in which she recounted the harrowing story of a college friend of hers who underwent an illegal abortion, resulting in her infertility. Democratic leaders are speaking up directly about abortion in a way that's nearly unprecedented, and we need their voices--and yours, of course--now more than ever. Trump, Pence, and certainly Kavanaugh have all made it clear, in their words and actions, that they intend to end Roe , one way or another. At this time, in addition to taking actions like calling our senators, showing up to rallies, and supporting abortion funds and advocacy groups, it's crucial that we talk about

Corbyn's Labour Party pulling off a hung parliament is by no means a fluke result. It simply matches the power relations that exist in contemporary Britain. A left-wing opposition party with an angry, confrontational message has come within an ace of being in government. In the process it has overcome many obstacles which would have tossed it into the wilderness not so long ago. A party with no coherent economic strategy for governing the country would have been electorally thrashed as happened in 1983 with Michael Foot and in 2015 with Ed Miliband. A leader with Jeremy Corbyn's personal biography would similarly have fared ill. His decades of agitation against British foreign and defence policy, support for violent Middle Eastern extremists and, above all close alliance with Irish Republicans in their savage epoch, would have disqualified him from high office. Perhaps it was the consideration that Corbyn was unelectable for such reasons that prompted Prime Minister Theresa May to listen to advice that her majority could be enhanced if she went to the country this spring. Perhaps the terrorist acts carried out by people whom Corbyn and allies have often found excuses for, steadied the Prime Minister's nerve. Her manifesto had badly misjudged the mood of the country and her campaign was formulaic and without vision by the time 22 people had been killed in the Manchester Arena nail bomb attack. But who could imagine people in the capital or in Lancashire endorsing a party led

Author`s name Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey 29 Jan 2013 at 01:36 Winds of change are blowing in Syria SANA, the official Syrian news agency, reported that on the occasion of Prophet Mohammad's birthday, on the 24th of January 2013, the Syrian President, Dr. Bashar al-Assad, participated in a religious ceremony at the al-Afram Mosque in Damascus. He shook hands with believers and listened to the noon prayer, delivered by His Eminence, Sheikh Ahmad al-Jazaeri, imam of the al-Afram Mosque. by Olivia Kroth After the prayers, Sheikh Kamal Hawwari cited verses of the Holy Quran. The Minister of Religion, Dr. Mohammad Abdul-Sattar al-Sayyid, held a speech about the birth of Prophet Mohammad, reminding the congregation that the Prophet had called for using one's logical mind rather than resorting to destruction. "As we are celebrating the birth anniversary of the Prophet Mohammad, we recall what he went through and how God made him conquer his enemies ... We can draw a parallel to our present situation, as Syria's enemies are conspiring against the homeland, and we can refer that it will definitely be victorious," the Minister's speech was quoted by SANA. He asked all Syrians to listen to President al-Assad's call for dialogue and urged them to follow in the footsteps of Prophet Mohammad. Sheik al-Jazaeri concluded the celebration with a prayer for the protection of Syria and its President. The Lebanese news agency Al Manar reported that the Syrian President was shown in a live broadcas

In thinking about India's internal security woes, several pressing issues come to mind: poverty, social fragmentation, disgruntled laborers, and overpopulation. But which is the most important? In fact, none of the above. According to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, reiterating his comments from a 2006 Chief Minister's Conference , left-wing terrorism--namely, the Naxalite-Maoist insurgency--sits atop the list. Surprised? Well, don't be. Naxalites, or Naxals, who operate along India's eastern coast (known as the "Red Corridor") make up India's most destructive and terrifying left-wing (Maoist) insurgency. Fighting for land reform and increased federal government attention to rural needs, Naxalites more and more frequently turn to violence to push their agenda. At an official meeting with Chief Ministers of Naxal Affected States on July 14, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram remarked : Between 2004 and 2008, on an average, 500 civilians were killed every year [by Maoist insurgents] and many of them were killed after being named "police informers." In 2009, 591 civilians were killed, of which 211 were named as "police informers." This trend has continued in the first half of 2010 too, with 325 civilians killed, of which 142 were named as "police informers." At the same meeting, Chidambaram revealed that "[d]uring the period January to June, 2010, there have been 1103 incidents of violence perpetrated by Left Wing Extremists," resulting in over 200 security forces fatalities. The

Some Famous Writers Went To Visit Some Hardcore Jewish Settlers By William Booth, www.washingtonpost.com May 11, 2016 Some Famous Writers Went To Visit Some Hardcore Jewish Settlers 2016-05-11 2016-05-11 https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.png PopularResistance.Org https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2016/05/Screen-Shot-2016-05-11-at-3.59.53-PM-150x100.png 200px 200px Above Photo: Writer Michael Chabon, right, speaks with a Jewish settler Ofer Ohana in Hebron, West Bank, in April. (William Booth/The Washington Post) Here's What Happened HEBRON, West Bank -- Arriving aboard a tour bus, accompanied by a former Israeli machine-gunner turned human rights activist, an international delegation of pretty famous writers came to the heart of this old city to see for themselves how 850 hardcore Jewish settlers, protected by 650 young Israeli soldiers, live among 200,000 angry Palestinians. The writers didn't like what they saw. The settlers didn't like the writers much either, especially their hosts. The Israeli military occupation is "the most grievous injustice I have seen in my life," Michael Chabon, the American author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel " The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay ," told the Forward, a Jewish newspaper, a day after seeing Hebron. "Liars!" the settlers shouted at the writers. Through the summer, 25 novelists will journey to Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to gather mate

By Asheeta Regidi The increasing number of internet shutdowns in India is a major cause for concern. The most recent was a 48-hour shutdown in Odisha over an objectionable social media post. Jammu & Kashmir also saw shutdowns yet again to prevent rumour-mongering. The Software Freedom Law Centre reports a total of 73 shutdowns in India, shutdowns in J&K made up 31 of these. SFLC also reports a steady doubling of the number of shutdowns each year - 3 in 2012, 5 in 2013, 6 in 2014, 14 in 2015 and 30 in 2016. The frequency of the shutdowns for various reasons show a worrying trend of shutting down the internet as a matter of routine. Are internet shutdowns becoming routine? The most obvious abuse of this provision is its use to prevent cheating in exams. Apart from this, research by the SFLC indicates a very wide-ranging list of reasons for the shutdowns, triggered by unrest of one form or the other. This includes preventing misuse of social media during communal violence, protests after incidents of rape or murder, anti-religious material like anti-Muslim messages and desecration of deities, etc. More specific examples include the Patel reservation and the Jat reservation agitations. In J&K, the reasons include the Prime Minister's speech, clashes with the armed forces and Eid unrest. This was also used to prevent the spread of misinformation during elections in Meghalaya, and after the death of the Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister. The range of reasons indicate an increasingl

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Laying out the first plans for his party's presidential ticket, GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan took some factual shortcuts Wednesday night when he attacked President Barack Obama's policies on Medicare, the economic stimulus and the budget deficit. Sen. Rob Portman, a former U.S. trade representative, glossed over his own problems when critiquing Obama's trade dealings with China. A day earlier, the convention's keynote speaker, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, bucked reality in promising that GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney will lay out for the American people the painful budget cuts it will take to wrestle the government's debt and deficit woes under control. And former senator and presidential candidate Rick Santorum stretched the truth in taking Obama to task over his administration supposedly waiving work requirements in the nation's landmark welfare-to-work law. A closer look at some of the words spoken at the GOP convention in Tampa, Fla.: RYAN: "And the biggest, coldest power play of all in Obamacare came at the expense of the elderly. ... So they just took it all away from Medicare. Seven hundred and sixteen billion dollars, funneled out of Medicare by President Obama." THE FACTS: Ryan's claim ignores the fact that Ryan himself incorporated the same cuts into budgets he steered through the House in the past two years as chairman of its Budget Committee, using the money for deficit reduction. And the cuts do not affect Medicare recipien

The Rafah Crossing from Egypt to Gaza was opened on May 26th for 2 days after being closed for the past 75 days. The opening allowed Palestinian residents of Gaza who were stranded in Egypt or third countries to return home to Gaza. The crossing remained closed for those trying to leave Gaza. The waiting list for people trying to leave has reached 15,000 people. The waiting list includes thousands of medical patients, students, and people traveling to their work or their families abroad. Many of these people have been trapped in Gaza since the Israeli attack last July. The last time the crossing was opened was in March when just 2,443 people in total were permitted to travel in both directions. While Morsi was in power in Egypt, nearly 41,000 people were traveling through the crossing each month. My friend Hanaa* had spent 2 years in the U.S. earning a masters degree. When she left Gaza in the fall of 2013 it took her 6 months to get authorization from Hamas to leave, and an additional month to get a U.S. visa. She came within days of losing a full scholarship. Many other students remained trapped in Gaza and their scholarships were rescinded. In the first year of her studies, Hanaa's father died. He needed routine heart surgery but he was not permitted to leave Gaza. He died on the operating table at Shifa Hospital. He was 50 years old. Hanaa could not return to Gaza to be with her family because there was no guarantee that she could enter Gaza, and if she could, there was a

By Ali Raza and Beenish Altaf New Delhi's immense investment in the conventional arms, upgrading of its anti-missile program (Ballistic Missile Defense) and its latest doctrinal transformation have indulged Pakistan to respond in form of TNWs in one or the other way, which is necessary for restoration and maintaining the credibility of its nuclear deterrence. The recent successful launches of November 13 th and 17 th Intermediate and Medium Range Ballistic Missiles is a timely and needy response to the recent lunch of Delhi's Medium Range Ballistic Missiles Agni II and its long range, subsonic cruise missile Nirbhay on November 9 and 17 respectively. The nuclear-capable cruise missile, Nirbhay has a range of over 700 kilometers that was announced to be test-fired from Balasore in Odisha state. And the test-launch of long-range nuclear-capable strategic ballistic missile, Agni-II has a strike range of 2,000 km that was fired from the Wheeler Island off the Odisha Coast. Evidently, the main purpose of Islamabad is to ensure that Pakistan has that counter strike capability that limits the threat of India's conventional limited war. For that reason Pakistan successfully tested Shaheen-II (Hatf-VI) Ballistic Missile on November 13 that is capable of carrying nuclear and conventional warheads to a range of 1500 kilometers. The other recent successful test launch was of Intermediate Range Shaheen 1A (Hatf IV) Ballistic Missile. It was aimed at re-validating various design and techn

Where is Jesus passing through in our own lives? He always shows up for those who have their spiritual eyes opened to see Him. How about in our workplace? How about in our relationships? How about in our families? Are we running out to meet Him? Or are we afraid? Are we wondering "if we see Him, what will He ask of us?" The invitation of this story is to climb that Sycamore Tree; to find the place that will make it possible for us to see Jesus The 'Good News' is that no matter what has happened in our past, Jesus walks into the dusty streets of our own lives this day. In the last chapter of the Gospel of St John we read "There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written." (John 21:25) This verse underscores the importance of the stories that are actually recorded in the Gospels. The people have been selected from among many others for a purpose. They can put us in touch with the Lord, ourselves and the purpose of our lives. Upon prayer and reflection, they become an invitation to conversion. St. Jose Maria Escriva once wrote "I advised you to read the New Testament for some minutes every day, and to enter into each scene and take part in it, as one more of the characters. This is so that you incarnate the Gospel, so that it is "fulfilled" in your life... and "make others fulfill it" (Furrow #672). St. Luke introduces us to a tax collector named Zaccheus.

Author`s name Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey 21 Jun 2017 at 01:44 Another Step Toward Devastating War An idiot American pilot shot down a Syrian fighter that was attacking ISIS, thus confirming that Washington is not fighting ISIS, as Washington claims, but is protecting ISIS, its agent sent to Syria by Obama and Hillary to overthrow the Syrian government. General Michael Flynn revealed on a TV interview that Obama and Hillary had, over his objection as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, made the "willful decision" to send ISIS to Syria. Washington's pretense that Washington is fighting ISIS, rather than supporting it, is the excuse for Washington's illegal presence in the Syrian conflict. Russia and Iran are in Syria legally, invited there by an elected government. The Americans are there uninvited as war criminals. Under international law established by the Americans themselves, it is a war crime to initiate aggression against a country that has not raised a fist against you. Washington pretends to be fighting terrorism So, to be in Syria, Washington has to pretend to be "fighting terrorism" rather than supporting it. The lie has been given to this claim many times, but now that an American pilot has proven that the US is in Syria to support its agent, ISIS , not even a Megyn Kelly presstitute can honestly claim to believe that Washington is fighting ISIS. The Russians, Syrians, and Iranians have known this from the beginning. However, these official sources are all sus

Upon arrival at the center, Chaiti's husband Budh Singh was given a blank paper to sign. Unlike many in the center, he and his wife could read and write, but there was not text on the paper. He signed for his wife's medical treatment anyway. No one mentioned family planning or sterilization and Budh was ushered outside to wait. A few hours later, when he was allowed into the recovery room, Budh found Chaiti among many women lying on the filthy floor, barely conscious. A health worker gave him some medicines for his wife, but no instructions and no paperwork. The following evening Chaiti began vomiting. The health center sent her by ambulance to the district hospital three hours away the following day, but she died en route. Bud Singh received a compensation cheque from the government for 200,000 rupees -about $3200. WHO IS TO BLAME? Health officials reported that some of the medicines used in Chhattisgarh contained a banned chemical used to poison rats. Police arrested the head of the company that made the drugs in Bilaspur and shut his factories. But other reports cited rusty surgical equipment causing infection as the cause of deaths. Many blamed the butchery of the greedy surgeon who, working for 100 rupees per operation according to one news report, was accused of trying to cram as many as he could in an afternoon's work. [3] Surgeon R.K Gupta, who conducted the procedures did not understand the outrage, however. He told reporters that he had done more than 50,000 such su

It was just another Facebook post by a Palestine-friendly blogger, wondering whether any of her FB friends could comment on a Tweet she'd received regarding Article 19 of the 4th Geneva Convention -- a tiny provision that appears to sanction the bombing of hospitals that have been commandeered by enemy combatants. "Article 19 starts on page 54," a FB friend quickly piped up, providing this link to the 4th Geneva Convention. Now, I'm not a lawyer -- international or otherwise -- but I imagine that in law, law of any sort, the devil is in the details. Which is to say you can easily get away with a crime you've committed if a trivial-sounding loophole can be found, and you've got a good lawyer. On the other hand, a tiny loophole in a lengthy legal statute doesn't necessarily mean you can't or won't land in the slammer for another bunch of related crimes, if the prosecution is on its toes. In Israel's case, the list of international crimes allegedly committed is lengthy: "crimes of occupation" and "oppression," "crimes of Apartheid," "collective punishment," and acts of war deemed criminal under international law -- like bombing hospitals and schools, UN-run shelters, and food production, power generation and sewage treatment facilities. So, does Israel need to hire a pack of high-priced lawyers to defend it in The Hague when the inevitable trial begins? Israel probably already has, in preparation for a bout of "delegitimization" Washington will do everything in its power to blo

Large West Bank traffic jams as settlers take part in bike race HEBRON (Ma'an) 25 May -- Heavy traffic jams were reported along the main road between Hebron and Bethlehem on Monday as a settler bicycle race took place in the area. TV crews from Ma'an satellite said the 30-minute drive between the two cities took three hours as Israeli forces closed a main exit from Hebron connecting to Route 60 as settlers from Kiryat Arba took part in a race. The exits to Halhul and Beit Ummar , both north of Hebron, were also closed. http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=765606 Violence / Attacks / Raids / Harassment / Arrests - West Bank & Jerusalem A night of violence in West Jerusalem +972 blog 25 May by Aviv Tatarsky -- For years now young Palestinian men have found themselves the targets of groups of Jewish youths roaming the streets of West Jerusalem on weekend nights. As warm weather returns, so are the attacks. One such attack raises the question: who are the police protecting? -- Thursday night, Zion Square, West Jerusalem. Summer is officially here, and the area that was quite empty during the winter is bustling with thousands of people enjoying a night out. Among them are some Palestinians who have come to partake in "Israelization" -- or, at least, that's how some people have begun describing Palestinians who blend into "Israeli" parts of Jerusalem, adopting modes of behavior that we usually ascribe to ourselves. At least one of the Palestinians seems -- I don't know, I didn't

The Organized Poor and Behind the Beautiful Forevers The Organized Poor and Behind the Beautiful Forevers Sengupta: Be-hind the Beau-tiful Forevers Mitu Sengupta ▪ May 9, 2012 Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo Random House, 2012, 288 pp. In her remarkable book about slumdwellers in Mumbai, India, Katherine Boo brings to light a country of "profound and juxtaposed inequality," where more than a decade of steady economic growth has delivered shamefully little to the poorest and most vulnerable. But though at first a heartfelt indictment of the processes of economic liberalization and privatization underway in India, the book slides into a troubling narrative about the roots of the country's poverty and squandered economic potential. As a result, Boo loses the possibility of making a truly empowering statement on India's current predicament. Behind the Beautiful Forevers is a beautifully written book. Through tight but supple prose, Boo presents an unsettling account of life in Annawadi, a "single, unexceptional slum" near Mumbai's international airport. The slum lies beside a "buzzing sewage lake" so polluted that pigs and dogs resting in its shallows have "bellies stained in blue." We meet "spiny" ragpickers rummaging through rat-filled garbage sheds, destitute migrants forced to eat rats, a girl covered by worm-filled boils (from rat bites), and a "vibrant teenager" who kills herself (by drinking rat poison) whe

Earlier this month, the Gujarat High Court made a commendable ruling that revolved around the vagaries of trafficking and sex work. It stated that clients of sex workers could be penalised under Section 370 (trafficking of persons) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC); however, the High Court provided a caveat that in cases where sex work is voluntary, Section 370 would not apply. The case, Vinod @ Vijay Bhagubhai Patel vs State of Gujarat (2017) is one where the judiciary looks at both the IPC as well as the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act (ITPA), 1956, and examines the crime of trafficking. Representational image. Reuters The court led by Justice JB Pardiwala partially quashed the FIR against a person -- who appeared to be the client or customer -- that held that the prosecution of the applicant under the ITPA is not maintainable as it cannot be considered that he "procured" a woman for the purposes of prostitution. However, the court was reluctant to accept that a customer was not regarded as a perpetrator under Section 370 of the IPC. "I find it extremely difficult to take the view that a customer at a brothel is not covered within the provision of Section 370 of the Indian Penal Code. A customer at a brothel could be said to receive the victim. I see no good reason why the customer should be kept out of Section 370 of the Indian Penal Code." The Court also urged the investigating officer to consider whether the sex workers in the present case were victims of exploitation, o

Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India by Shashi Tharoor Scribe, 2016, 295 pages, $32.99 ________________________________________ At its height in the 1920s, the British Empire was the largest and most populous empire in world history, with up to a quarter of the world's landmass coming under the British flag. A central component of the empire was the Indian Empire or Raj, which contained the bulk of Britain's imperial subjects, estimated at over 300 million people in 1914. It was situated between the borders of Afghanistan and Thailand and included the present-day states of Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Burma. What began from extremely humble beginnings--a cluster of isolated trading posts and "factories" along the coast--had by the late eighteenth century turned into a huge, sprawling Asian empire and the "jewel in the crown" of Britain's overseas possessions. The Raj has often been seen as one of the most impressive examples of imperialism in modern history. Winston Churchill called the Raj "the finest achievement of our history" and remained steadfast in his admiration of how India had been "defended against invasion from the north; famine has been gripped and controlled ... Justice has been given--equal between race and race, impartial between man and man" and, most impressively, how science "has been harnessed to the service of this immense and, by themselves, helpless population". Even those who were not so staunchly imperialistic could still rec

From A World To Win News Service Turkey: As state attacks Kurds, academics declare, "We will not be a party to this crime" January 25, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us Silopi, in southeastern Turkey near the border with Iraq, January 19. AP photo 19 January 2016. A World to Win News Service. A political crisis has been revealed and deepened by a petition initially signed by well over a thousand academics condemning the Turkish government's offensive against city neighbourhoods and towns in the Kurdish provinces of eastern Turkey. Entitled "We will not be a party to this crime," the petition signed by "Academics for Peace" from almost 90 universities accuses the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan of seeking to use hunger to punish people in Sur (a neighbourhood in the city of Diyarbakir), Silvan, Nusayno, Cizre, Silopi and other towns kept under curfew since mid-December. "It has attacked these settlements with heavy weapons that should only be used in wartime," it says, calling this a "deliberate and planned massacre." Rather than denying the accusation, the government's reaction was to escalate. "Pseudo intellectuals" with a PhD should not expect to be treated any differently than the "terrorists" under attack by the army in Turkish Kurdistan, Erdogan warned. He declared that signing the 10 January petition was an act of treason and anyone who did not retract their signature would be charged and put on trial. Twenty-seven scholars, mostly from Kocaeli University in no

Displacement, unemployment and shifting gender roles in the Syrian community have fueled an issue that the World Health Organization has as a global epidemic: violence against women. While exact statistics are difficult to come by, it is clear that violence against Syrian women has risen in Jordan and Lebanon, particularly intimate partner violence (IPV), exploitation, survival sex and early marriage. At the core of female refugees' vulnerability is the lack of income opportunities and security, which leads to financial insecurity and exposes vulnerable Syrians to exploitation. One in four Syrian households in Jordan and Lebanon are headed by women who struggle to pay rent and buy food. There are few opportunities for Syrian refugees to work in Jordan or Lebanon, and the positions that are available often pay low wages, have poor working conditions and expose refugees to harassment. Host nations and the international community must do more to both prevent gender-based violence (GBV) and protect survivors of GBV. This would not only curb violence against women and assist Syrian refugees, but also promote development in local communities.n The economic hardships faced by Syrian refugees have led to a shift in gender roles and an increase in IPV. Syria is considered to have a patriarchal society, where men dominate all elements of society outside of the home and women are seen as homemakers. Now, however, Syrian men in Jordan and Lebanon are unable to fulfil their traditional ro

In a critical development in the Syrian civil war, the Turkish army and allies began a ground incursion towards the Syrian border city of Jarablus on the morning of August 24. Turkish artillery and jets, supported by US military advisers, warplanes and drones, started pounding ISIS targets at around 4 a.m. local time. This was followed by a land operation at 11 a.m. by Turkish special forces and tanks, as well as 1,500 Syrian radical Islamist fighters. These fighters, according to BBC Turkish, were brought a few days ago from Idlib by Turkish officers and grouped on the Turkish side of the border. As of the writing of this piece, invading forces are advancing surprisingly rapidly, conquering village after village, and have already captured Jarablus as of at around 7 p.m. local time with only one casualty. Indeed, Kurdish sources argue that this is a mock fight, as ISIS is evacuating its troops from Jarablus, which has become a burden for it after the loss of Manbij. Although the Turkish army is now vowing to "completely wipe out" ISIS, the real aim of the operation is to preempt an attack by the Kurdish militia towards Jarablus. Following recent victories against ISIS, culminating in the liberation of Manbij on August 12, the Kurdish YPG (Peoples' Defense Units) and allies control a very large part of northern Syria, with the exception of the swathe of land between Jarablus and Marea. The US wanted them to march on ISIS' main base in Raqqa, however, Kurds announced the establ

Author`s name Dmitry Sudakov 26 Nov 2015 at 10:54 A sensitive time both Turkey and Russia to act with reason Turkey has been living among the ring of fire for a long time given its geographic position. No doubt, the on-going conflict in Syria has been escalating at a great pace as new players have entered the stage. Even though she did not want to get involved in the clashes in Syria, she has been compelled to be part of it as she considered a way to protect civilians. Turkey is showing her intention in helping the civilians by hosting 2.5 million people fleeing from the war zones and continuing to receive newcomers with patience and enthusiasm. November 24 th marked a very unexpected incident, which rose tensions in the area and especially between Turkey and our long-lasting friend, neighbor and strategic partner since the declaration of the Republic of Turkey: Russia. It should be noted that Turkey is against all kinds of tension and conflict within the region. Yet, it has faced very severe terrorist acts recently in advance of the June and November elections. The latter one was witnessed at the center of our capital Ankara, which has been labeled as the deadliest terror act seen in Turkey's history. With its new cabinet announced yesterday, Turkey will to resolve the situation both within the country and in the region where it acts as one of the key players. We wish from the very bottom of our heart that no conflicts take place, no combat aircraft hover around our skies

"What did Jesus do?" asks Michael Slaughter, pastor of Ginghamsburg Church in Tipp City, Ohio. "Jesus spoke in parables, which was storytelling -- it wasn't abstract ideas. It was passing on wisdom through the telling of stories." And telling stories, says Slaughter, is what he is doing every Sunday, albeit with an arguably unholy twist. Where Jesus might have relied on little more than his voice and a nice turn of phrase, Slaughter employs a huge screen and Sony 3-chip studio cameras, an SVHS-format video system, Media 100 nonlinear digital video editing equipment and a Hughes/JVC 320 projection system -- all of it operated by something called "the worship team." He also operates a Web site, complete with discussion boards. "We are doing a series on marriage and home," reads one posting. "I'm looking for a video clip that shows a wife supporting her husband and vice versa. Any ideas?" A response: "In Father of the Bride Part 2 (my wife made me watch it) there are a coupla scenes when the husband totally pampers his pregnant wife." Other discussion threads: subwoofer placement; which mini-DV camcorder to buy; and which image, converted into a slide and presented via PowerPoint during a service, will best communicate "sanctification." Signs of the apocalypse? Heavens no, say the leaders of up-and-coming "media churches." Hell yes, say critics of the trend. For his part, Slaughter calls the Media Reformation, a label he coined in his book "Out on the Edge," a revolutionary bid

AKCAKALE, Turkey (Reuters) - Syrian rebels seized their third border crossing with Turkey on Wednesday, a Turkish official said, after fierce overnight battles with government troops that sent bullets flying into Syria's northern neighbour. Reuters television footage showed a rebel tearing down the Syrian flag on top of what appeared to be a customs building at the Tel Abyad frontier gate. "I can confirm that the gate has fallen. It is under the complete control of the rebels," a Turkish official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Minutes earlier sporadic gunfire had echoed around the area and black smoke had risen from parts of the building. Rebels could be seen celebrating on top of the customs building, with one firing his gun into the air. There was no sign of any government troops at the crossing. The clashes, which started late on Tuesday, were the first time insurgents fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had tried to seize a border zone in Syria's al-Raqqa province, most of which has remained solidly pro-Assad. Rebels hold two other crossings on the northern border with Turkey. A third will strengthen their control in the north and put more pressure on Assad's army as the two sides battle for control of Syria's largest city Aleppo, not far away. The governor's office in the small town of Akcakale, on the Turkish side of the border post, ordered all schools in the town and the neighbouring villages to close for the day and banned all agricultural

From July 26th to 28th Palestinian physicists and the international group "Scientists for Palestine," are organizing the first ever 'Palestinian Advanced Physics School' at the Arab American University in Jenin. Professor Stephen Hawking, a member of the project's International Advisory Board, says "Physics does not respect borders and international collaborations are the engines of rapid scientific progress. I am delighted to see that physics education and research in Palestine continues to grow and strengthen its international connections. I wish the students the best of luck!" Palestinian prisoner Bilal Kayid was rushed to a hospital in Ashkelon, Israel, after his health suddenly deteriorated, as he entered his 33rd day of hunger strike, according to the Palestinian Committee for Prisoners' Affairs. Meanwhile, some 37 Palestinians prisoners have begun open hunger strikes in solidarity with Kayid. The Iran deal is still assailed by US hardliners, who don't even hide their efforts: Adam Szubin, Obama's under secretary of the treasury for Iranian sanctions, parrots Netanyahu's claim that Iran is the biggest sponsor of terror in the world and speaks at neoconservative thinktanks without any consequences. Yahya Hisham Hijazi, 24, from Shu'fat refugee camp in occupied Jerusalem, who was injured by nine Israeli army bullets [on Thursday 14 July], became the latest victim of Israel's security obsession and paranoia, under allegations that became known to the Palestinians, claims o

When myths confirm widespread bigotries and serve the interests of the powerful, they are frequently reported in the media as fact, even if they are completely groundless. Nowhere is this more evident than in the blatant lies spread by right-wing news outlets about Saadiq Long, a Muslim-American Air Force veteran they accused of joining ISIS. "Poster boy for 'no-fly' unfairness held in Turkish prison, accused of helping ISIS," Fox News reported in late November. The list of media outlets and pundits who joined Fox in spreading the myth reads like a Who's Who of right-wing propagandists: RealClearPolitics , Erick Erickson RedState , Erick Erickson JihadWatch , Robert Spencer FrontPage , Robert Spencer Mediaite , Alex Griswold The Daily Caller , Chuck Ross Pamela Geller Ann Coulter Sam Harris Media outlets in Oklahoma , where Long lives, picked up the story too. An expose by The Intercept , however, found that the accusations made against Long are utterly bogus. The report is based on complete lies. "The story is entirely false: a fabrication," Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald and his colleague Murtaza Hussain wrote in the article. "Neither Long nor his wife or daughter have been arrested on charges that he joined ISIS. He faces no criminal charges of any kind in Turkey." The myth originally came from the right-wing blog PJ Media (formerly known as Pajamas Media). The website, which has ties to many far-right fringe figures, has a history of running outlandish,

flamingdem (37,297 posts) Kobane: IS and Syria Kurds in fierce gun battles Source: BBC Kurdish fighters are engaged in fierce gun battles with Islamic State (IS) in the Syrian border town of Kobane, as US-led coalition air strikes continue. A BBC correspondent near the fighting says dozens of weapons are firing, with regular grenade explosions. In its latest report, the US Central Command said six air strikes had destroyed IS weaponry around Kobane. The UN envoy for Syria has urged the international community to act now to prevent IS from seizing the key town. Staffan de Mistura told the BBC that the fall of Kobane would be "a massacre and a humanitarian tragedy". Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29532291 According to those at the scene or reporting on Kobane Isis has been slowed down by multiple airstrikes. UAE participated in the strikes. Jenan Moussa @jenanmoussa 39m39 minutes ago Acc. to Kurdish defence chief for #Kobane, city is not about to fall. "If coalition is serious & helps us more, we can win agnst ISIS" cahit storm @cahitstorm * 2m 2 minutes ago Fierce fight ongoing ln west #Kobane the plane is still there he just drop some pepper at me Jenan Moussa @jenanmoussa 1h1 hour ago Acc 2 @CENTCOM --> US did 4 airstrikes on #ISIS targets south #Kobane,1 SW of it & another at southern edge; UAE participated Paul Adams @BBCPaulAdams 4h4 hours ago Today shaping up much like yesterday. Multiple airstrikes. But I have almost never heard such intense street

The former Hsker D frontman riffs on turning down $400,00 checks, writing for World Championship Wrestling, and the surprising details of his new memoir Bob Mould is a lot milder now than he was in the '80s. He's also healthier. And openly gay. In his new memoir, See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody , he writes about growing up with an alcoholic father in desolate upstate New York, his drug-addled days when he looked gruffer and meaner than any club bouncer on stage with his legendary band Hsker D, and the group's eventual, hair-tearingly mourned breakup. If this all sounds like the typical rockers-of-a-certain-age autobiography fare, it is, but Mould's story doesn't feel slapdash or flimsy. Weaved into the chronology of his career are confessional details about his severely troubled personal life--his long-gestating coming out, complicated relationships with boyfriends, and existence as a self-titled "miserablist." GQ sat down with Mould when he was in New York on the first leg of his book tour. GQ: A lot of the book is about keeping your homosexuality under wraps in the early '80s when Hsker D was blowing up. Do you think had you been openly gay, it would have changed how you were received? **Bob Mould: **There's no way to know for sure. At the time, there were only a few people doing the heavy lifting as far as being out musicians. Tom Robinson, Jimmy Somerville, Boy George to some degree, as time went on, more so. I think people might have looked at it differe

I know a girl who is so completely obsessed with finding " the one ." Her entire existence is centered around a finding a man who will wrap her up in his arms and sweep her away to the blissful island of love. She doesn't go to parties on the weekend unless eligible men will be there. And she doesn't hang out with her friends very often because she works full time. But she does makes sure to go on at least three dates per week. "I just want to fall in love. My greatest fear is that I will never find love. Oh, will I find love? Ugh, probably never," she once said to me at a rooftop party. Her beautiful, topaz eyes were glassy with desperation. She melodramatically lit her cigarette and gazed longingly into the smoky city distance, as if she were starring in a movie about a broken millennial starved from the magic of love. I stayed silent because I like to let a girl indulge in her own sorrow, especially when she's buzzed at a stupid party. I let her have her moment and walked away. Plus, I got it. You have to let a girl indulge in her own sorrow, especially when she's buzzed at stupid party. I used to have the same fear. After so many complicated breakups, terrible dates at shitty bars and disconnected, empty sex, I used to find myself with sudden bouts of "I'll never find love" anxiety . "I will die alone," I would whisper to myself, as I struggled to find my underwear on the dirty floor after a one-night stand deep in Brooklyn. "I will die alone," I would think to myself,

AMY GOODMAN : In a televised address Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon defended the disengagement plan. ARIEL SHARON : It shows strength rather than weakness that we are taking this step. We tried to reach agreements with the Palestinians, which would move the two peoples towards the path of peace. These were crushed against a wall of hatred and fanaticism. The unilateral disengagement plan which I announced approximately two years ago is the Israeli answer to this reality. This plan is good for Israel in any future scenario. We are reducing the day-to-day friction and its victims on both sides. The IDF will redeploy on defensive lines behind the security fence. Those who continue to fight us will meet the full force of the IDF and the security forces. Now the Palestinians bear the burden of proof. They must fight the terror organizations, dismantle its infrastructures and show sincere intentions of peace in order to sit with us at the negotiating table. The world awaits the Palestinian response. A hand offered in peace or continued terrorist fire. To a hand offered in peace, we will respond with an olive branch, but if they choose fire, we will respond with fire more severe than ever. The disengagement will allow us to look inward. Our national agenda will change. In our economic policy, we will be free to turn to closing the social gaps and engaging in a genuine struggle against poverty. We will advance education and increase the personal security of every citizen

Cannabis is being legalized in most places now as new scientific researches have debunked the old myths about cannabis and it has been proven to be less harmful and safer than alcohol. The use of cannabis has in fact never decreased and has been gaining more users every year as people have realized that it does not harm them too much and because it is a much gentler culture than alcohol. It is a form of a peaceful gesture. After Colorado legalized cannabis the states crime rates are down by 10%, they have invested the huge tax money received in building more schools and benefits to the people of Colorado. Cannabis from India is pretty famous all over the world because it naturally grows here in uncountable numbers and it has been part of our culture and rituals too. If it grows naturally and so abundantly why not benefit from it rather than treat it as an evil. Hemp/Cannabis is a wonder plant as it can be used to produce more than 10000 products that are used on daily basis it will be really useful as all hemp products are biodegradable and will help in keeping the environment free of non biodegradable products to an extent. China already has almost half of the patents of known cannabis products. Make In India can be a huge hit in the hemp industry as it grows wildly in our country and we can definitely procure the needed raw materials. I want our country to dominate the world Hemp and cannabis market as it is very capable to do so and has all the talent and raw materials req

Air strikes kill 30 suspected PKK terrorists in Syria and 40 in Iraq's Sinjar region, according to the Turkish military. Members of the People's Protection Units (YPG) inspect the damage at their headquarters after it was hit by Turkish airstrikes in Mount Karachok near Malikiya, Syria. April 25, 2017. ( TRT World and Agencies ) Turkish war planes bombed PKK and YPG targets in Iraq's Sinjar region and in northeastern Syria respectively on Tuesday. Around 30 PKK terrorists were killed in Syria and 40 in Iraq, according to the Turkish military. The strikes are part of a widening campaign against groups affiliated with the PKK, designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and EU. The air strikes in Syria targeted the YPG - a key component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which are backed by the United States and have been closing in on the Daesh bastion of Raqqa. An earlier statement by the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group had said that least 18 YPG fighters and media officials were killed in the raids. There was no immediate casualty report from the YPG. Targeting "hot beds of terrorism" Turkey's military said its armed forces had targeted the PKK in northern Iraq and northeastern Syria early on Tuesday. The office of the Turkish General Staff said in a statement that the counter-terrorism strikes were carried out around 2:00 am local time (2300 GMT) on Tuesday to target PKK sites on the Sinjar Mountain in northern Iraq and on Ka

By Ebbe Bertelsen In the winter months of 1987 a popular uprising erupted in Palestine. In what is known as the First Intifada, the Palestinian people rebelled against twenty years of occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and forty years of apartheid, racial discrimination and humiliation in Israel. For six years mass demonstrations, strikes and university protests swept the country. Within these six years the iconic images of stone throwing boys facing military tanks went around the world. Haidar Eid is an active member of the Palestinian campaign for academic and cultural boycott of Israel and a professor of English Literature and Cultural Studies at al-Aqsa University in Gaza; he explains the significance of the First Intifada: "Until the First Intifada the Palestinian question was completely marginalized in the international community. The uprising shattered the myth that Israel has the most moral army in the world. Here we had the world's fourth strongest military literally breaking the bones of Palestinian children." In the last years of the Intifada secret negotiations began between the leadership of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (the PLO) and the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. This process ended with a famous handshake on the lawn of the White House and the signing of what are known as the Oslo Accords. For Haidar Eid the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993 was a political hijacking of the popular uprising: "Unfortunately the right wing leadershi

Smoke rises over a mountainous area in northern Syria after a war plane was shot down by Turkish fighter jets near the Turkish-Syrian border / Reuters BY: Reuters November 24, 2015 7:58 am By Tulay Karadeniz and Maria Kiselyova ANKARA/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Turkish fighter jets shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border on Tuesday after repeated warnings over air space violations, but Moscow said it could prove the jet had not left Syrian air space. It was the first time a NATO member's armed forces have downed a Russian or Soviet military aircraft since the 1950s and Russian and Turkish assets fell on fears of an escalation between the former Cold War enemies. A Kremlin spokesman said it was a "very serious incident" but that it was too early to draw conclusions. Footage from private Turkish broadcaster Haberturk TV showed the warplane going down in flames in a woodland area, a long plume of smoke trailing behind it. The plane went down in area known by Turks as "Turkmen Mountain", it said. Separate footage from Turkey's Anadolu Agency showed two pilots parachuting out of the jet before it crashed. A Syrian rebel group sent a video to Reuters that appeared to show one of the pilots immobile and badly wounded on the ground and an official from the group said he was dead. Russia's defense ministry said one of its Su-24 fighter jets had been downed in Syria and that, according to preliminary information, the pilots were able to eject. It said the aircraft had been over Syr

In the past few weeks, a conflict between Ankara and Baghdad over Turkey's role in the liberation of Mosul has precipitated an alarming burst of Turkish irredentism. On two separate occasions, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized the Treaty of Lausanne, which created the borders of modern Turkey, for leaving the country too small. He spoke of the country's interest in the fate of Turkish minorities living beyond these borders, as well as its historic claims to the Iraqi city of Mosul, near which Turkey has a small military base. And, alongside news of Turkish jets bombing Kurdish forces in Syria and engaging in mock dogfights with Greek planes over the Aegean Sea, Turkey's pro-government media have shown a newfound interest in a series of imprecise, even crudely drawn, maps of Turkey with new and improved borders. Turkey won't be annexing part of Iraq anytime soon, but this combination of irredentist cartography and rhetoric nonetheless offers some insight into Turkey's current foreign and domestic policies and Ankara's self-image. The maps, in particular, reveal the continued relevance of Turkish nationalism, a long-standing element of the country's statecraft, now reinvigorated with some revised history and an added dose of religion. But if the past is any indication, the military interventions and confrontational rhetoric this nationalism inspires may worsen Turkey's security and regional standing. At first glance, the maps of Turkey appearing on Turkish TV recently r

From Civilizing Missions to Collateral Damage: Syria and the Rules of War From Civilizing Missions to Collateral Damage: Syria and the Rules of War There is a general reluctance to judge the effects of U.S. war-making by the same humanitarian criteria we apply to our enemies. Reflection on the history of international law, and on an incident from 1920s Syria, might shed light on the deep roots of this intuition that the way we fight can't be held to the same standards as the way they do. James R. Martin ▪ September 10, 2013 (Bob Simons/Wikimedia Commons) While the U.S. Congress continues to debate plans to attack Syria, there's still little consensus about the grounds on which military action can be justified or rejected. Supporters and opponents of intervention have rolled out a standard stock of historical analogies to support their positions: Rwanda for the liberal interventionists, Iraq for the skeptics, and Munich (of course) for the neo-con-ish hawks. There's another, less well-known precedent to western intervention in the Middle East, though, that merits inclusion in the debate today: Syria's 1925 revolt against French rule. The international legal controversy inspired by the brutal French response to this revolt has unsettling implications for how the humanitarian case for intervention is being framed today. In terms of international law, the most straightforward case made in favor of intervention is that Syria must be held accountable for its alleged violatio

The traditional grand council of more than 2,000 Afghan leaders and elders meeting in Kabul this week is the latest in a series of efforts to revive the political and diplomatic efforts aimed at advancing peace and stability in Afghanistan. But these steps are unlikely to produce tangible results in the immediate future. Here's why. Resolving the multiple conflicts at the heart of the decades of war in Afghanistan and the broader region requires a better diplomatic and political game plan than the one currently in place. A conference in Istanbul earlier this month involving key regional neighbors of Afghanistan produced a document that was heavy on the verbiage and light on the implementation mechanisms. Afghan President Hamid Karzai's loya jirga in Kabul this week appears to have little direct linkage to the regional diplomatic efforts in Istanbul and other international initiatives, even though all are designed to some extent to help build a peace process for Afghanistan. Another international conference planned for next month in Bonn, Germany, is not likely to produce major steps forward either. Open meetings like these are the least likely arenas to address some of the thorniest issues at the core of the conflict, including the role played by neighbors such as Pakistan and Iran and the diplomatic strategy for dealing with a fractured yet alarmingly resilient and deadly Taliban movement. These meetings may establish some useful frameworks and broad understandings between k

IN HIS famous 1852 speech "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" Frederick Douglass expertly uses rhetorical strategies to establish to his white, liberal audience that (1) abolition of slavery is a position supported by reason, and ought to be the position of anyone valuing democracy; but also that (2) when all the arguments have been made, and all the logic of this or that position has been debated, there is nothing left to do but to present the horrors of slavery once more, to point directly to the hypocrisy of a "democratic" country that suppresses liberty, and to conclude that disagreement in this matter is ultimately not just about debate or reason but about deeply-held political positions. Once it is established that the slave is a human being and that human beings deserve liberty, Douglass argues, what is left to say but that slavery must be abolished? I'm sure you've come across these lines, or taught them in class: At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! Had I the ability, and could I reach the nation's ear, I would, today, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation mus

By Jamal Kanj Seeing "free" Western media with headlines like "Rockets raining over Israel", or describing the success of Israel's Iron Dome defence system in intercepting missiles from Gaza, you would assume there was a war between equals - or even that "poor Israel" was under attack. Many Western readers won't know that all of the 100-plus killed since Tuesday - and practically all of the 700 injured - are Palestinians, many of them children. Responding to a correspondent who questioned the disproportionate number of civilians killed, including 22 children, CNN anchor Brianna Keilar explained: "Yes, Gaza is just so heavily populated. That's certainly always a side effect and we're seeing that there." Officially, White House spokesman Josh Earnest offered unqualified US support for "Israel's right to defend itself against these vicious attacks". Yet when that White House statement was issued on Tuesday, not one single Israeli had been hurt. Meanwhile, more than 30 Palestinians, including a whole family, were already dead - killed by an Israeli army equipped with America's best technology. Harmless and aimless rockets fired from Gaza are the Palestinians' only way to fight back. In addition to Israel's recent aggression, Gaza has been under a military blockade for more than seven years, which alone is an act of war. Enjoying freedom of movement and peace are basic rights of all people, but if Palestinians can't enjoy that right then neither should the Israelis. After the disa

In an interview with Belgian media, President al-Assad has underlined that by adopting this policy, Europe has isolated itself and undermined every possible role it could play in this regard and has also harmed the interests of its people through it having supported organizations that have practiced all forms of terror against the Syrian people. Following is the full context of the interview: Mr. President, we've been to Aleppo, we've seen the destruction, how do you see the way forward to peace nowadays after Astana? If you want to talk about how to see the peace, it's not related mainly to Astana; it's related to something much bigger: how can we stop the flowing of the terrorists toward Syria, or in Syria, how can we stop the support from regional countries like Turkey, [Persian] Gulf states, or from Europe like France and UK, or from the US during the Obama administration. If we deal with that title, this is where you can talk about the rest, about the political procedure. Astana is one of the initiatives during this war on Syria, and it's about the dialogue between the Syrians. Now it's too early to judge Astana, the first one was positive because it was about the principles of the unity of Syria, about the Syrians deciding their future. How can you implement this communique? That's the question, and I think we are going to see Astana 2 and so on. So, the peace is two things: fighting terrorists and terrorism, stopping the flowing of terrorism, every kind of logistical s

The shooting down of a Russian helicopter by Syrian rebels has resulted in the largest Russian loss in the war to date. A video circulated on social media purports to show locals dragging the body of one of the five crewmembers killed. Though no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred in territory held by the group formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, the incident will likely escalate matters on the ground. It will certainly impact the anticipated US-Russian deal to cooperate militarily against shared enemies in the embattled country. But should this deal help defeat the likes of ISIS, and other groups deemed terrorists or extremists, the position of Assad, whose Russia-backed regime has been at the root of the armed conflict, will be more protected in the long-term than ever. Washington and Moscow back completely opposing sides in the civil war. The US and its regional allies supported Syria's opposition, while Russia remained loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his fight against "terrorists." Such divisions can be seen clearly in fighting in Aleppo, which has intensified this past week. A US-backed rebel offensive against the Russia-backed Assad regime's siege of the city has led to nearly 30 civilian casualties in a single day. The Kremlin ignored the root cause of the conflict, primarily a call for democratic change and an end to Assad's dictatorship. The two powers' support for different sides in the conflict created a bottleneck, which h

Eretz Israel is not an empty country ... On no account must we injure the rights of the inhabitants. Only "Ghetto Dreamers" ... can imagine that Eretz Israel will be given to the Jews with the added right of dispossessing the current inhabitants of the country. This is not the mission of Zionism. Had Zionism to aspire to inherit the place of these inhabitants--it would be nothing but a dangerous utopia and an empty, damaging and reactionary dream ... David Ben-Gurion, 1918. The father of his country wrote these words early on in the project of Israel--still in its dreamy, pre-natal state--responding to the hardline mitteleuropa sensibility of conquest, which had overtaken the rhetoric of his fellow Zionists. Years later, in the 1930's, he would still speak of the fraternal kinship between his Arab "neighbours" and "brethren," and the Jews, and their common destiny. But decades of conflict, and the pressures of a public life, would erode his idea of comity with the Arabs, and he ended up an enthusiastic supporter of the settler movement. A case of "as goes the Man, so goes the Nation," you might say. Today, that "reactionary dream" is fully upon us, and Israel's political establishment is seduced by dangerous utopianism--the logical outcome, perhaps, of a nation founded in dispossession, now at the limits of what it can achieve by force. The time is long past to ask, "What does Israel want?" We don't need utopian answers from millenarians believing in divine right--no pro

"I am first and foremost a revolutionary. ( Her seyden once bir devrimciyim ben .)" - Ahmet Kaya "If I can't be a part of this country, I'ma damn sure tell everybody exactly what's wrong with it." - Tupac Shakur As I approached the grave of Ahmet Kaya, I saw a woman in front of it, weeping. There's someone else here? I thought, aghast. The Turkish-Kurdish singer died in 2000 while fleeing political persecution in France and remains buried in Paris' Pere Lachaise Cemetery. What were the chances that Parisians would know Kaya's work, let alone wish to visit his sixteen-year-old grave? If Westerners are aware of Kaya at all, it's likely only because his estate accused Adele of plagiarism last year. But as I paid homage to the site, a stream of visitors did the same--mostly Turks on holiday. I struck up a conversation with that first woman, a Turkish Australian tourist. She was stopping by Kaya's grave because her father in Turkey was an enormous fan of the artist. She wasn't very familiar with Kaya's music herself. I can't personally imagine crying at the grave of a musician whose music I don't even know. But that speaks to the power of Kaya's legacy: for Kurds he is a symbol of martyrdom and hope in the face of oppression. And Westerners should care about that, especially these days; Turkey's lingering Kurdish issue is one of the major factors determining the trajectory of the Syrian conflict. Both Turkey and America are experiencing spikes in racial tension. In Turkey, the col

Gerard Way's Young Animal pop-up imprint was a breath of fresh air at DC Comics when it launched in 2016, capturing the vital transgressive spirit of early Vertigo books with a huge dose of the new--and the weird . The imprint's initial four ongoing series each seemed to exist in their own bizarre world, which made the idea of a crossover--and with the Justice League of America, no less--a bold, unlikely, potentially disastrous step for the line. Thankfully, the heroes of the DC Universe met the Doom Patrol, Shade, Mother Panic and Cave Carson on Young Animal's turf, resulting in a gloriously weird five-issue "un-event" centered on milk that homogenizes the publisher's icons into '50s-era stereotypes of repression: Batman serves as a priest, Wonder Woman is more of a wonder wife and Milkman Man...well, you'll need to read the series to find out his deal. With the five-issue run collected in trade paperback this month, Paste caught up with Young Animal's three ongoing writers-- Shade 's Cecil Castellucci , Mother Panic 's Jody Houser and Cave Carson 's Jon Rivera--to look back on their one-shot contributions to the Milk Wars saga. We also snagged a lactose-filled quote from former Justice League of America writer Steve Orlando, who scripted the two bookending issues and masterminded "Milk Wars" alongside Gerard Way. "Milk Wars" is everything comics should be: bold, thought-provoking, unflinching and born from the minds of an incredible group of true creatives, through a tr

The Obama administration sees a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the cornerstone of its evolving Middle East strategy. Yet the window of opportunity for achieving a viable two-state solution is rapidly closing--at a time when Israelis and Palestinians seem incapable and unwilling to achieve a sustainable peace agreement. In the coming months, the Obama administration needs to build on its first steps on the Israeli-Palestinian front with specific actions to shore up Israeli and Palestinian political support for a possible two-state solution. The Obama administration has taken important steps to demonstrate the seriousness of its intent. President Barack Obama appointed an experienced, high-level team including former Senator George Mitchell as special envoy for Middle East peace. As this team initiated multiple policy reviews and engaged key actors in the Middle East to gauge the openings for possible shifts in U.S. policy, President Obama repeatedly voiced his public commitment to a two-state solution. His speech in Cairo last month directly tied the creation of a Palestinian state to U.S. national security interests. The Obama team is building on previous administrations' efforts to boost the capabilities and professionalism of the Palestinian security forces and is working to advance economic development in the Palestinian territories. The administration has pushed for a freeze on the expansion of Israeli settlements on the West Bank, and is now pu

Ohio passed a law in 2011 saying that women had to take the abortion pill using the exact FDA guidelines. If you don't know much about medicine, that sounds reasonable. But the thing is, a lot of medicines are prescribed using evidence-based guidelines rather than the FDA's official one. Moreover, that FDA guideline was outdated from the 1990s. To get a medication abortion in Ohio, you had to go to a doctor four times and had to take a larger dosage. It also limited the weeks into a pregnancy you could take it. Ohio, Texas and North Dakota all have this law that says you have to follow FDA guidelines. Fans of the Ohio law said it is about " protecting women's health ." But many pro-choice advocates saw it hurting women as it made them use outdated instructions and created more barriers to access. Dr. Ushma Upadhyay, from the Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health research group at the University of California, San Francisco, was one of the skeptics. She told Elite Daily, I was just shocked to hear that this law could be enacted. So she did a study, published on Tuesday in PLOS Medicine , about the effects of the law. Upadhyay compared the results of women who had medication abortion before the 2011 law and after. Overall, medication abortion (and the "surgical" abortion procedure) are extremely safe, but can require follow-up appointments or involve side effects. The study found those who had to comply with the law were three times more likely to need at least one ad

Turkey has become home to the biggest number of refugees in the world. This is a remarkable turnaround for a country that, upon signing the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, insisted it only be legally obliged to take those fleeing "events occurring Europe". Fast forward more than 60 years and it is likely that there are more Syrian refugees in Istanbul than there are in the European Union. Turkey, once reluctant to become drawn into the crises of its Middle Eastern neighbours, has led the humanitarian response to the catastrophe in Syria. In contrast to Europe... As of 15 June 2017, there were 3,049,879 Syrian refugees registered in the country, with the unofficial figure likely to be much higher. Less than 10 per cent of these are hosted in the refugee camps. The rest have made their home in the bigger cities along the Syrian border in the south east, such as Urfa and Kilis, or in the large urban centres of Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. When Syrians first started fleeing to safety across the border in June 2011, the Turkish government was still operating under the assumption that the Assad regime would follow that of Mubarak in Egypt, and succumb to the democratic wave sweeping the Arabic region. Sympathetic to their aspirations, and confident that it would not have to wait long, the ruling Justice and Development party welcomed persecuted Syrians not as refugees, but as people under their "temporary protection". Syrians were granted free access to healthcare and interim education

Make Way for High Rises: Who Benefits from Slum Demolitions in Mumbai? Make Way for High Rises: Who Benefits from Slum Demolitions in Mumbai? Throughout Mumbai, one can see members of a vast, seldom-remunerated labor pool that does not share in globalization's promises of plenty and exists on the legal margins. Sixty-two percent of Mumbaikars live on land to which they have no legal claim. Joshua K. Leon ▪ March 13, 2013 Cardboard recycling in Dharavi, Mumbai (Meena Kadri, 2009, Flickr creative commons) Lacking the controlled facades of other great cities, Mumbai's quotidian street life does not hide the poverty upon which "development" in the Global South depends. Throughout the city, one can see members of a vast, seldom-remunerated labor pool that does not share in globalization's promises of plenty and exists on the legal margins. Sixty-two percent of Mumbaikars live on land to which they have no legal claim. Their "informal" lives play out in slums, in tucked-away settlements, and on the hot pavement of Mumbai's many market districts. In a country whose overriding challenge is rural poverty, India's urban crisis has been a relative afterthought for the national government until only recently. India is 32 percent urbanized--a population of 377 million--and that figure is climbing steadily, although not at the pace of other emerging markets. If current demographic predictions are accurate, six of its cities could have populations greater than 10 million within twent

Scores of Palestinians killed. Thousands wounded. That's the toll exacted over the past seven weeks by Israel's military against protesters along the security fence separating Gaza from Israel. Unless the situation gets defused quickly, the carnage is likely to get much worse. Since early April, weekly "Great March of Return" demonstrations have focused on the plight of more than 700,000 Palestinian refugees driven from their homeland in 1948. Exacerbated by the Trump administration's move of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on Monday - when 60 Palestinians died and about 2,700 were injured - and further fueled by Israeli independence anniversary celebrations and Tuesday's Palestinian commemoration of Al Nakba, another catastrophe appears to be unfolding. Here's how to avert even more death and despair. As the peace process has stalled, living conditions in Gaza have grown increasingly desperate: only an average of five hours of electricity per day, dwindling supplies of food and medicine, staggeringly high unemployment rates (nearly 45 percent overall, and over 60 percent among young people), rising levels of water pollution (more than 90 percent is contaminated) and disease (sewage pumps need electricity), and an economy that has virtually come to a halt. Even so, based on my observations and conversations with key NGO leaders and others during my recent visit to Gaza, nothing's wrong there that, on a humanitarian level, can't be significantly improved in a few mon

As the Canadian government plays at fighting wars in Iraq/Syria and in eastern Europe, we see daily examples of how militarism ultimately degrades, disrupts and destroys democracy. Indeed, we are subjected to a gravitational pull of obedience to martial values that blinds us to a series of uncomfortable realities that are visible in plain sight but unmentionable in mainstream discourse. While a slavish media hangs on every General's word, Ottawa refuses to release the costs of its overseas adventures. Politicians who voted against the Middle East mission now say we must rally around the troops. It is instructive that Generals speak of modern warfare as taking place "in theatre." It reminds those who are watching the government-supplied videos of aircraft taking off and bombs being dropped that, like audience members at the local movie house or attending a live performance, we must be quiet for the duration of the performance. We cannot stop it midway through and ask questions or protest without the risk of being booed. As in the neighbourhood multiplex films, the wars are all pretty much built on the same good guys versus evil script that has not changed for centuries. Indeed, as Ottawa author Stephen Dale points out in his excellent new book Noble Illusions: Young Canada Goes to War , an examination of the propaganda used to indoctrinate young men to join the ranks of the First World War, militarist tactics stay pretty much the same over time, with only changes in the castin

In-depth study of the conditions of Palestinian workers in Israel and their function in the Israeli economy. Palestinian workers in Israel: a reserve army of labour - Emanuel Farjoun The following is a translation of a survey published in Hebrew as a pamphlet (Dapim Adumim no 5, Jerusalem, May 1978) by the Socialist Organisation in Israel- Matzpen. In Israeli parlance the term 'Arab', which denotes a member of the Arab society in the areas ruled by Israel, has a dual connotation. First, the Arab is a person born and bred in the Palestinian-Arab society, a non-Jewish resident in the Jewish State. Secondly, the Arab is a worker, who arrives early in the morning from his village to build houses and roads, clean, do the garden, repair cars and fill them with petrol; and who at night usually goes back home - to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Galilee or the Triangle. The Arab as a person is seen as an abomination. His very existence mars the Jewishness of the State of Israel. He belongs to that Arab people with which the Jewish settlers' society has been contending since its very beginning. As the writer A. B. Yehoshua puts it: 'Therefore was this nation severely enjoined to be strictly apart, without the nearby gentile. . . There is nothing more dangerous than allowing the gentile back into our midst (and he is very deep in our midst, entirely woven into our ecomomic infrastructure, but penetrating also into other spheres of our life.)' 1 Israeli society persecutes the Arab pe

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com Six Turkish soldiers killed in explosion a day after Ankara attack New terrorist attacks cause further splits in US-Turkey relationship Russia's attacks on civilian hospitals in Aleppo follow the 'Grozny model' Six Turkish soldiers killed in explosion a day after Ankara attack Turkish security officials say that Russia bombing of civilian hospitals is following the 'Grozny model' used in Grozny, Chechnya (AFP) Six soldiers were killed in southeastern Turkey on Thursday by a roadside bombing that hit an armored military vehicle. Like Wednesday's huge attack in Ankara, this appeared to be an attack targeting military personnel. Turkish officials blame both attacks on the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party). The PKK is a separatist group that has conducted numerous terrorist attacks in Turkey since 1984. They have frequently attacked military targets in the past. Turkey's government and the PKK had agreed to a ceasefire three years ago, but it collapsed last year, after a July 20 terrorist attack in the city of attack on Suruc killed 33 people, mostly young pro-Kurdish activists. Erdogan declared war on the PKK, and it appeared that Turkey was slipping into chaos as violence spread across the country. Since July, there have been months of military operations, curfews, attacks and hundreds of dead and injured, especially in southeast Turkey, which is the heart of the Kurdish separatist movement and home to much of the PKK. CNN

The recent spate of reports, warning of a looming "humanitarian crisis" in Gaza, underscores the painfully obvious: The endeavor, spanning almost a quarter century, to transform the coastal enclave of the Gaza Strip into a self-governing Arab entity has failed -- resoundingly and irretrievably. The magnitude of this failure can be gauged from a recent document composed by the Congressional Research Service entitled, "U.S. Foreign Aid to the Palestinians" : "Since the establishment of limited Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the mid-1990s, the U.S. government has committed more than $5 billion in bilateral economic and non-lethal security assistance to the Palestinians, who are among the world's largest per capita recipients of international foreign aid." The Futility of International Aid The report goes on to stipulate the intended objectives of this generous aid: "Successive Administrations have requested aid for the Palestinians in apparent support of at least three major U.S. policy priorities of interest to Congress: Promoting the prevention or mitigation of terrorism against Israel ..; Fostering stability, prosperity, and self-governance ...that may incline Palestinians toward peaceful coexistence with Israel..." Meeting humanitarian needs..." Given the grim realities today, this aid has clearly failed miserably in achieving any, and all, of its declared goals! Neither stability, nor prosperity, nor effective self-government have been in any way s

Get it? Ted Cruz doesn't like it when the DHS "scrubs" Muslim references out of documents! It's a joke about a TLC song! Just when you think Ted Cruz has slithered off to whatever hole he fell into after Donald Trump ruined his lifelong dream of starting a fundamentalist presidential bigot movement, he creeps back and immediately tries to set your house on fire, like a crazy, spurned lover. [wonkbar][/wonkbar]This week, the Senate Judiciary oversight committee interviewed retired Customs and Border Protection officer Phillip Haney, who testified that the Department Of Homeland Security had erased records containing Magic Words like "radical Islamic terrorism," "jihad," and "Muslim Brotherhood." Thursday, during a separate meeting of the Senate Judiciary oversight committee, Ted Cruz got all up in DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson's face about that: CRUZ : in October 2009, more than 800 Customs and Border Patrol documents were ordered, modified, scrubbed or deleted to remove references to jihad or the Muslim Brotherhood or other similar references. Was Mr. Haney's testimony that the Department of Homeland Security had ordered over 800 documents altered or deleted in CBB, was that testimony accurate? JOHNSON : I have no idea. I don't know who Mr. Hanen [sic] is. I wouldn't know him if he walked in the room. Well damn! Cruz continued: CRUZ : So you have no

We have a saying in the world of therapy. "Secrets kill." Thus is the path of many women after abortion. Don't talk. Don't feel. Keep the secret. - Trudy M. Johnson, M.A., LMFT What can a woman feel after abortion? Many women say that no one told them what to expect emotionally. In fact, a woman who has just had an abortion is often under enormous pressure - whether from her partner, her family and friends, or the abortion provider - to act as if nothing has happened, or even to express relief or happiness. In some cases, the woman may be trying to keep the abortion a secret, in which case the pressure can become extreme. In reality, such pressure is unfair to post-abortive women, who have just undergone a significant and sometimes traumatic surgical procedure, often at a time of great upheaval in their lives. While some women do indeed experience relief after an abortion, others find that they were not prepared emotionally to deal with the aftermath. Some women may find themselves experiencing unexpected grief or depression, with little understanding or support from their partner or loved ones. In those cases where the woman is keeping the abortion a secret, she must deal with these negative emotions completely alone. Some may even bury the associated negative emotions just in order to carry on with life, only to find that years - sometimes even decades - later, the unresolved negative emotions suddenly re-emerge, requiring healing. In fact, some psychologists have coined

I READ and reread a piece about the death of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir by Uri Avnery and was more unsatisfied each time I looked it over. Avnery is the venerable leader of Israeli group Gush Shalom, the Peace Bloc. Yes, Avnery calls Shamir a "terrorist," but in the article, there's a kind of grudging respect for the man. In the last lines of the piece, he compares Shamir to two more recent prime ministers, Ehud Olmert and Benjamin Netanyahu, in this way: Shamir, the dead honest fanatic, has many followers. Olmert, the living corrupt pragmatist, has very few. Netanyahu, their current successor, has the vices of both and the virtues of neither. What virtues? Shamir was a leader of a Second World War pro-Nazi gang. Decade later, his cruelties brought on the first Intifada. Olmert savaged Lebanon in 2006 and Gaza in 2008. Virtues? SOME BACKGROUND. In 1938, as a teenager, Uri Avnery joined the Zionist military group in Palestine called the Irgun. So did Shamir, who was eight years older. The Irgun launched terrorist attacks on the British and on Arab Palestinians, but when the Second World War started, the Irgun suspended its violent actions on the British. Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir Uri Avnery left the Irgun in 1942 and moved to the left. After Israel was established, he became a magazine editor, led Zionist peace parties and served several terms in the Knesset. In 1982, he was the first Israeli politician to meet with Palestine Liberation Org

The G4S security company has announced plans to leave the Israeli market. This is a big deal. In 2002, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) incorporated the activities of the largest multinational private security company to date, G4S 1 , in the management of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Since then, G4S has held 90 per cent of the shares in its Israeli subsidiary. The company is the second largest actor in the management of the occupation after the IDF and the biggest private security employer both in Israel and around the world (G4S website). In 2006, G4S took charge officially of the management of Israeli checkpoints 2 . The services it provides include providing scanners in the "buffer zone" and at the Erez checkpoint on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip. The zone is located within the occupied territories between the Green Line - the 1949 armistice line between Israel as it was established in 1948 and the West Bank - and the so-called Separation Wall (Nieuwhof 2012). G4S also provides security services at the checkpoints at the entrances to Qalandia, Bethlehem and Irtah, all connected to the Israeli wall built since 2001 3 . The system of checkpoints connected to the wall is designed to limit and control the movement of Palestinians within the West Bank. G4S's presence was an attempt by Israel to normalise the occupation. By doing so, it sought to create a sense of permanency to the occupation which disconnects its reality from Israeli society while entr

The nearly month-long attack by Israeli forces on Gaza has revealed that anti-Arab racism permeates many levels of Israeli society. Indeed, to acknowledge Palestinians as humans worthy of a state, a home and basic necessities such as medical care, electricity, food and water, would undermine the brutality of Operation Protective Edge. Racism among the Israeli population is either stronger than ever, or simply more visible today thanks to social media and the proliferation of online means of expression. Some Israelis are openly thrilled that Gaza is being leveled. A Danish reporter came upon a cheery group of people who gathered outdoors in the southern Israeli town of Sderot with folding chairs and popcorn to watch the air war, clapping each time a bomb dropped on Gaza. Other Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv to celebrate the killing of Gaza's children. They were videotaped singing a song whose words included, "In Gaza there's no studying; No children are left there," and calling for violence against two of the Israeli Knesset's Arab members. The verbal vitriol is also flowing strongly. Early on in Israel's operation, writer David Sheen compiled a list of what he called "Terrifying Tweets of Pre-Army Israeli Teens ," which included such gems as "Death to these fucking Arabs" and "We wage war so this will be our land without any Arabs." But the racism has gone beyond mere celebrations of war and death. While the horrific revenge killing of 15-year-old Mohammad Abu Khdeir is being

A Youth Manifesto is urgently required. It is obvious that young people are an increasingly marginal group within our electoral system; in the 2010 general election, 44 per cent of 18-24 year olds voted compared with 76 per cent of over-65s; while just 55 per cent of all 18-24 year olds had even registered to vote compared with 94 per cent of over-65s. These figures are evidence of a crisis, of a fundamental disconnect between young voters and their so-called representatives, and of a lack of interest in the political system. The result of this apathy is obvious: politicians take no interest in young people's priorities and thus are able to take up policy positions that actively harm their interests without fear of electoral reprisal. Furthermore, it is imperative that young people are politically involved now . The problem with distancing oneself from any system is that you lose the power to improve it. An uninterested and uninformed electorate will permit policies that play to prejudice and allow politicians to do what is salient rather than what is effective and required. We are now at a critical juncture. The western nations are faced with issues such as climate change and gross income inequality which require entirely new approaches and new ideas. These are not issues that will lead to catastrophe for older generations, these are issues that will fundamentally affect our world and are affecting it now. If young people remain detached, remain uninterested, and wait anoth

Like this article? Chip in to keep stories like these coming. The House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women presented its report entitled Promising Practices to Prevent Violence against Women and Girls in the House of Common in June 2015. The Committee heard testimony from 48 witnesses including 38 organizations and four individuals. The report contained 11 recommendations for the Government of Canada to implement in order to effectively address violence against women and girls. Here's information from the report that provides a perspective of violence against women and girls. According to Statistics Canada, rates of violent crime are similar for girls and boys younger than 12 years of age. In 2011, 8,200 girls were the victims of violent crimes. In 2013, almost half of the violent crimes committed against young girls were sexual in nature. Most of these assaults were perpetrated by a family member. Girls 12 to 17 years of age are more likely to experience violence at the hands of peers or dating partners. In 2011, 27,000 young women were victims of violent crimes. Girls this age were eight times more likely than boys to experience sexual assault or other sexual crimes. Women between the ages of 15 to 24 experience the highest rates of violence. Women 18 years of age and older experience violent crimes of a sexual nature at a rate of seven per cent. Violence against women is an under reported crime. Only 30 per cent of women experiencing spousal violence re

Gordon College revives community service following controversy By Kara Bettis | December 31, 2015, 19:33 EDT Printed from: http://newbostonpost.com/2015/12/31/gordon-college-revives-community-service-following-controversy/ The chapel at Gordon College, located in Wenham. (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.org) WENHAM - More than a year after the Lynn Public Schools cut ties with Gordon College over its policies on same-sex relations, which are part of the Christian school's detailed code of moral conduct, the college has reconnected with other North Shore communities and continues to look for opportunities to serve Lynn. For 11 years until 2014, faculty and students provided services to the economically struggling city though the "Gordon in Lynn" program, in which first-year students serve local civic programs through a required course that includes community service. The median household income in Lynn is about two-thirds of the state median, and the percentage of those who live in poverty is almost twice the statewide rate. But in August 2014, the Lynn school district said it no longer welcomed volunteers from Gordon, claiming the college intended to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. The issue arose from a July 2014 letter to President Barack Obama, signed by D. Michael Lindsay, Gordon's president, and 14 faith leaders from around the country, including the Rev. Larry Snyder, the chief executive of Catholic Charities USA, Rick Warren, the senior pastor of Californi

By Rakesh Kamal, Clean Energy Policy and Programs Consultant at The Climate Reality Project's India branch What Happened? Even as many Indian companies bridle at environmental regulation, many of the major industries players today are broadly committed towards working for a sustainable future. The same certainly can't be said of all major Western economies, so what makes India different? Two factors stand out. The first is government policy. In 2014, India passed the first-of-its-kind bill turning corporate social responsibility from an admirable (voluntary) objective into a formal mandate. The law requires companies with annual revenues exceeding 10 billion rupees (approximately $156 million) to donate at least 2 percent of their net profits to charities working in areas including hunger, education, and the environment. Debates continue on the law's overall effectiveness , but one result has been to direct resources directly to environmental causes, including climate action. The second is good old-fashioned self-interest. Recognizing that business becomes much harder in a world shaped by destructive floods, dangerous heat, and other climate impacts, many companies have begun embracing clean energy and other solutions to help address the crisis. One result is that businesses are helping de-carbonize the economy faster than anticipated. Another is that India is actually seeing business opportunities grow , rather than shrink through climate action. This year, India overtook th

Addressing an international symposium on counter-narcotics policies in Istanbul yesterday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said a lack of moral values in society contributed to the rise in drug abuse, and called on for better education for children to instill those values. The president said Turkey already implemented strict laws under his tenure as prime minister to combat drug use and vowed to continue his fight against drugs as the president. Erdogan spoke at the International Symposium on Drug Policy and Public Health organized by the Turkish Green Crescent Society, the country's top teetotalling society. The three-day symposium opened yesterday, and is being attended by experts, academics and NGO officials from 50 countries. He said drugs were a serious threat especially for children and youth. He cited that 2.7 percent of population in Turkey admitted to using drugs at least once. "It is relatively low compared to other countries, but this figure tends to increase nowadays. I hope we will decrease it with newly-implemented laws and regulations and improvement of state agencies' efforts to contain the drug threat," he said. The president said he was closely involved in the fight against drugs during his tenure as prime minister for 12 years. "With my fellow ministers, I coordinated steps to be taken against drugs. I assure that this issue will always be on my agenda during my term in the presidential office. I will remain as one of the most fierce fighters against

On 24 October 2017, the law student and vocal anti-caste Indian feminist Raya Sarkar put up a Facebook post. In it, Sarkar asked fellow students to share their experiences with academics "who have sexually harassed/were sexually predatory to them". Coming in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein saga and the #MeToo movement, the post quickly went viral. Hundreds of women messaged Sarkar on Facebook and WhatsApp to tell their stories and name their abusers. Starting off with just two names, the list quickly grew to 72, many of them prominent figures in liberal and progressive circles. "Honestly it was an act of impulse. I was infuriated to know that Christine Fair's article was removed from Huffington Post and the ridiculous reason they took it down for," says Sarkar over e-mail. They (Sarkar uses this pronoun) were referring to an open letter by the senior American academic in which she named several men, including noted Indian historian Dipesh Chakrabarty, who had harassed her over the years she spent in academia. (The article was taken down by Huffington Post , but has since been republished by Buzzfeed; Chakrabarty told a Chicago paper that he had "always worked to maintain a respectful, professional, and cordial relationship with my students" and would listen to any complaints "carefully and take appropriate action.") Sarkar continues: "I just wanted students and my friends to be wary of alleged sexual harassers in academia. I used first hand accounts and whatever evi

Greg Albo & Cy Gonick Canadian Politics May 6, 2006 The January federal election results unexpectedly yielded a minority Conservative government. The Great Moving-To-The-Right Show is having yet another run. In Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Canada now has the most ideologically committed neoliberal in power since Margaret Thatcher. The five priorities Harper has announced - an accountability package, a cut in the GST, a market-based childcare system, a law-and-order agenda centred on sentencing and a reduction in health-care wait times through increased delivery flexibility - all reflect these commitments. These proposals are embedded in the overall strategic priority of aligning Canada even more tightly with the U.S. through increased overseas military commitments and further economic integration. Canada's takeover of the NATO command in Afghanistan and increased troop deployment is already sketching in the new terrain. It could hardly be more pressing for the Left to take stock of what the Harper government is and might become. The Harper Advantage It was evident on election night that Harper does not have the possibility of forging a stable Parliamentary majority. Neither the Liberals nor the NDP will want to underpin the government. The Liberals will not easily shed their opinion of themselves as the "natural governing party"; while supportive of the neoliberal government of Paul Martin, the NDP will find holding up a Harper administration too shameful. As part of a

Olive Trees Palestine (Photo: Abed Othman) To Dad... I looked at his teary eyes, and, beholding something akin to happiness, I smiled. The man I have always known to be my father was back. He did not look like that unfamiliar block whom I could not really recognize during the last three years. He was no longer that absent-minded, silent figure gazing at walls all the time and uninterestingly nodding whenever addressed by anyone at home. He was there. He was present. He was actually listening as I went on bragging about a high grade of mine. A phone call and a piece of paper signed by some Turkish-sponsored institution brought me back my father. It didn't matter what brought him back. He was back; that was all that mattered. I looked at his eyes again, this time more carefully lest my first glance should be false. I saw that absolute happiness in my father's eyes. A big smile leaped my heart and made it to my face. Again. As we now commemorate the Land Day, we honor the people who stood up for their land back in 1976 when Israel announced thousands of Palestinian dunams to be confiscated. During marches held to protest against that declaration of Israel, six people were killed. The 30th of March brings back a memory of our Land, my father's Land. A couple of weeks ago we got a phone call informing us that my father's name has been selected for a reconstruction program funded by Turkey. The program aims at helping Gazan farmers whose lands were damaged during the Israeli offen

TEHRAN - Criticizing the U.S. policy in Syria to bring Turks and Kurds into a full scale war, Turkish veteran politician says involving syrian Kurds in the county's settelment process will limit the U.S. influence in Syria. Turkish military on Saturday announced that it launched "Operation Olive Branch" on Saturday at 5.00 p.m. While Turkey says the operation is to eliminate terrorist from the region, Syrian government considers it as violation. To know more about the issue we reached out to the senior member of Turkey's Republican People's Party (CHP), Dr. Osman Faruk logoglu. Following is the full text of the interview with him: Q: What is the real goal behind the U.S.' provocative acts in the region like creating a border security force in Syrian Kurdish region or arming SDF? A: One constant in the ever-fluctuating Syrian conflict has been the rivalry between Russia and the U.S. For influence and a say in the now and the future of Syria, Russia has put its stakes on Bashar al-Assad and the U.S. on the Kurds. Turkey on the other, supporting various Sunni groups - some of them regarded as terrorists by the U.S. and others - fighting Assad, opposes both Assad and PYD/YPG and thus has a more difficult path to tread. Further complicating the situation has been recent U.S. acts of support to PYD/YPG despite repeated warnings from Turkey that it is aiding a terrorist organization. After supplying YPG with heavy arms, the most recent U.S. move to create a YPG-strong "border

Donald Trump, the billionaire U.S. president, who during his campaign said that regime change in Syria would not be his top priority and called for cooperation with Russia to fight ISIS/AL Qaida and associated "Islamist Jihadists" groups, stunned the world by launching an unprovoked attack of 59 tomahawk missiles against Syria's Shayrat military air base in April 2017. There has not been any evidence to support the U.S. accusations of the chemical attacks by the Syrian government, the alleged reason for the U.S. attack. Allegedly, 23 missiles hit their targets, which suggests that 36 missed their targets or were destroyed by Syrian anti-aircraft missiles. We know that Russia has provided Syria with latest anti-missiles capabilities in terms of S400. The bourgeois press is quiet about the targets of those 36 missiles. Syrian authorities reported four soldiers killed, two soldiers missing in action and three civilians killed. MiG (Russian) jet fighters were also reported damaged. Nevertheless, Assad's Syrian military was able to use the bombed airport the following day to resume its attacks on its enemies. Russian authorities admitted that the U.S. warned them two hours prior to the attack. The damage has been done; Russia has suspended the military cooperation that existed between the two military powers in the region, making the risk of military confrontation over Syria even more possible. The Trump administration's contradictory policy came just days after Nikki Haley, his a

Mass civil disobedience of thousands of Palestinian people has defeated an Israeli attempt to take territory around al-Aqsa mosque in occupied East Jerusalem by installing barricades and metal detectors at entrances. "The spirit of unity amongst Jerusalemites today has been extraordinary. People from all walks of life, practicing Muslims and non-practicing Muslims and even Christians, have taken part in directly protesting the closure of Al-Aqsa. We all recognize the significance of this battle, and so we all resist," according to Jalal Abukhater, who lives in East Jerusalem ( Electronic Intifada , July 25). For two weeks Palestinian worshippers refuse to go through metal detectors, and prayed in the thousands in the streets outside the compound, day and night. Thousands of jubilant, chanting Palestinian surrounded the Israelis removing the final security obstacles in the early hours of July 27. A celebratory fireworks display was held in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The Western media has given scant coverage to this important struggle, nor to the increasing repression which ignited it. Corporate media reporting on Palestine, when it does happen, often obscures the issues. For instance, recent reporting in the New York Times and other outlets gives the impression that Israel has some claims at al-Aqsa. The reality is that Israel's presence there violates international law. The compound, known to Muslims as the Holy Sanctuary, includes the al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the

The UN Security Council convened on Friday in a closed session for deliberations on Syria. Russia requested the emergency session to demand that Turkey stop its strikes on the so-called "Syrian Democratic Forces" in northern Syria. Russia also called for Turkey to abandon its preparations for a ground operation in its southern neighbour. It should be noted that most of the Syrian Democratic Forces belong to the YPG ("People's Protection Units"), which is the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The latter is listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and NATO. Friday's Security Council session could be viewed as a precedent, as it discussed the plans of an expected military operation. It is noteworthy that the session was held at the request of Russia, which many countries see as an occupier of Syria. The government in Moscow must be certain that a Turkish ground operation in Syria is just a matter of time. Russia clearly wants to pre-empt such a move with a UN resolution that would restrict Turkey and further complicate its already complicated position. According to some diplomats, France and four other countries (the US, Britain, New Zealand and Spain) rejected Russia's draft resolution. With three of these countries possessing a veto (France, the US and Britain), there is no hope for the draft resolution to be adopted. In addition, the French ambassador at the UN, Francois Delattre, accused Russia of causing the escalation in Syria by supporting the Assad

At the very outset let me confess that this has been a difficult piece to write. When everyone around you is shouting the same thing from the rooftop, it is very difficult to say the opposite. Gold, over the last one week, has turned into a four-letter word. Last Thursday (11 April 2013), the closing price of the yellow metal was $1,564.2 per ounce (one troy ounce equals 31.1 gm). A week later, as I write this gold is selling at around $1,375 per ounce. The price has fallen by around 12.1 percent over the period of just one week. And this fall has suddenly turned investment experts (at least the ones who appear on television and get quoted in newspapers) all bearish on gold. They have been giving different reasons to stay away from it. But if they were so confident that the price of gold would fall, as it has, why didn't they warn investors before it fell? Everything is obvious after it has happened. All that money has not led to high inflation, as the gold bulls had been predicting. So central banks have managed to slay the inflation phantom - or so goes the claim. Reuters But as the Nobel Prize winning economist Daniel Kahneman writes in Thinking, Fast and Slow, "The ultimate test of an explanation is whether it would have made the event predictable in advance". Those offering the explanations now clearly did not predict the massive and sudden fall of gold. And before it all happened, the Bloomberg consensus forecast for gold by the end of 2013 was at $1,752 per ounce. Henc

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A grandmother who slipped across one of the world's most guarded frontiers and a new border post being built in response could have been the catalysts for the worst flare-up between the armies of India and Pakistan since 2003, a newspaper report and a resident said. At least four soldiers, two from each side, have been killed in clashes since last Sunday in disputed Kashmir, where the nuclear-armed enemies are separated by a Line of Control (LoC) set up in 1948. Taken together, it is the worst violation of a nine-year ceasefire along the 740-km (460-mile) zig-zag line across the mountainous Himalayan region, although exchanges of gun and mortar fire are commonplace. Both armies are said to maintain snipers and special assault teams close to the line. "It still is an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation. On some days, people can't step out of the post. If you come out for water, there is firing," said Gurmeet Kanwal, a retired Indian army brigadier who has commanded troops on the line. For interview: Kashmir violence could turn 'ugly' warns Hafez Saeed click reut.rs/UQa8bp For blog: LoC killings: Is a third-party probe the way ahead? click reut.rs/Wwbxlv For a graphic, click link.reuters.com/war25t The two countries have fought three wars since they gained independence from colonial Britain in 1947, two of them over Kashmir, a region they both claim. On at least two other occasions, they have come close to war. While the two countries share a formal internati

In 2002 the Israeli Government decided to construct "a barrier" separating the West Bank and Israel with the declared purpose of improving the security of Israel by preventing Palestinians from entering Israel without first being cleared at a checkpoint. Today, the Annexation and Segregation Wall consists partly of concrete slabs, which are eight to nine meters high and are connected to form a concrete wall, and partly of fences, ditches, razor wire, groomed sand paths, an electronic monitoring system, patrol roads and a buffer zone. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared in its Advisory Opinion on 9 July 2004 that the Annexation and Segregation Wall and its associated permit regime is contrary to international law and that all states are under an obligation not to render aid or assistance to maintain the situation created by its construction. A particular concern of the ICJ was the location of the Annexation and Segregation Wall and the ICJ noted "that the route chosen for the wall gives expression in loco to the illegal measures taken by Israel, and deplored by the Security Council, with regard to Jerusalem and the settlements, and that it entails further alterations to the demographic composition of the Occupied Palestinian Territory." When completed, the Annexation and Segregation Wall is going to be 712 kilometers long, which is more than twice the length of the Green Line, and more than 9.4 percent of the West Bank and 30,000 Palestinians will be trapped betw

American efforts to support the opposition by arming them directly and through Arab nations have brought Russian forces there and now Russia is firmly footed in Syria, influencing Arab nations and Israel. With which it coordinates certain terror operations. Syria is unofficially divided and destabilized, thousands of Muslims have been murdered by all "stake holders" in Syria, both Muslim and non-Muslim as well as anti-Muslim forces - objective of global anti-Islamism and Islamophobia. Fall of Aleppo Shift in Russian policy for West Asia by joining the fighting foreign forces led by USA, destabilizing Sunni Syria misruled by a Shiite president, has worked miracles for president Putin as Russia is seen as a formidable force in the world to take on US militarism.. Syrian Aleppo has finally fallen to Russian forces favoring President Assad . As Aleppo rebels are defeated in an asymmetric fight, and UN and Western leaders prove unable to protect civilians from what they expect to be retribution by the regime, comparisons abound to the Russian pounding of the Chechen capital, Grozny, in the 1990s, and the Serbs' slaughter of 8,000 Muslim men in Srebrenica, Bosnia, in 1995. Russian intervention in Syrian war has now almost ensured, thanks to president Putin's firm commitment to dictatorial dynastic misrule of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad that he can just enjoy his remaining life without even holding any referendum, let alone elections, to continue his misrule and claim le

Shir Hever Alternative Information Center 3 April 2008 A Gaza petrol station where fuel supplies ran out, April 2008. (Wissam Nassar/ MaanImages ) Over a year has passed since Israel privatized its oil refineries in Haifa and Ashdod to private companies. The Haifa refineries were bought by a group of investors lead by the Ofer brothers, two of Israel's richest capitalists through their company Israel Corp. The Ashdod refineries were bought by the Paz petrol company owned by Zadik Bino. The privatization, one of the biggest in Israel's history, has transformed the petrol market in Israel at a time when oil prices are soaring and affect every aspect of the Israeli (and the Palestinian) economy -- through increase in transportation costs, in heating costs in the winter, in the price of electricity and even in the costs of basic foodstuffs (which require oil products as part of their production system). A privatization process that raises many questions Throughout the privatization process the Israeli government was accused by Israeli non-governmental organizations that the privatization is handled in a poor fashion, with little regards to issues of proper conduct, to issues of environmental safety and to ensuring that the proper price is paid for the refineries. A smell of corruption was hanging in the air when it was published that one of the main government officials involved in the privatization process was later hired by the Ofer Brothers to occupy a high-paying prestigious

If Hillary Clinton becomes our next president, one of the changes you can expect is an invasion of industrial wind development in your community that has the potential to severely damage your property values, ruin the viewshed, impact your sleep patterns, and cause your electricity rates to " necessarily skyrocket "--all thanks to your tax dollars. The Democratic presidential candidate frequently references her pledge to install 500 million solar panels. Her website promises : "The United States will have more than half a billion solar panels installed across the country by the end of Hillary Clinton's first term." And, while we know she wants to make America "the clean energy super power of the 21 st century," finding her position on wind energy is not so obvious. Perhaps that is because, as more and more people learn more about its impacts on their lives, its support continues to wane. Pragmatic environmentalists find it hard to ignore the millions of birds that are killed by the giant spinning blades--including bald and golden eagles, as well as massive numbers of bats (which are so important for insect control) that are being slaughtered. Some have even "successfully sued to stop wind farm construction," reports Investor's Business Daily . More and more communities are saying : "We don't want wind turbines here." For example, in Ohio, a wind project was " downed " when the Logan County Commissioners voted unanimously to reject EverPower's request for a payment in

This marks a qualitative shift in the US policies towards the country since the civil war started and a stark departure from Trump's own campaign promises of trying to collaborate with Russia to curb the Islamic State. The situation escalated after the use of chemical weapons on Tuesday in the opposition-held province of Idlib, killing 80 people. France and the UK blamed Assad's regime for the chemical attack, while Russia accused armed opposition groups of keeping chemical weapons stored in facilities bombed by the Syrian air force. With a disingenuous rhetoric of defending the children from Assad's regime, Trump ordered the direct airstrikes Thursday evening, marking a break with the previous policy on Syria of no formal military intervention in the government-held territory, while maintaining covert military and financial support of opposition militias, and direct bombing of the areas in control of ISIS. Trump laid the ground for a military intervention early Thursday when he declared that Assad had "crossed a red line" in using chemical weapons and that "something should happen." Secretary of State Rex Tillerson went even further and promised an "appropriate response." Tillerson also asserted that "Assad's role in the future is uncertain." The Trump administration has had a rocky beginning: the emergency ejection of Michael Flynn, the defeat of the ban on immigration (twice), the embarrassing failure at garnering enough support for the replacement of the ACA. Amidst these

Syria was once the jewel in the crown of Turkey's "zero problems with neighbours" policy. However, the Arab Spring and Syrian revolution not only devastated that policy but also led to a big economic burden stemming from an ever-increasing number of Syrian refugees fleeing from the brutal violence and crossing into Turkey. The Syrian crisis also crystallised Turkey's Achilles' heel, Kurdish separatism, and the Sunni-Alawite split as the spillover effect of the Syrian conflict became more and more evident with the appearance of new, and unwelcome, neighbours along the 900 km border: the Jihadist groups Al-Nusra Front, ISIS and the Democratic Union Party ("Partiya Yekitiya Demokrat" or PYD, the Syrian branch of the PKK). This article will mainly analyse two issues which have endangered Turkey's border security as well as its relations with neighbouring countries and the West: the Syrian refugee problem and the Kobane crisis. Both are of vital importance as they are related directly to Turkey's very sensitive domestic political issues. The Syrian refugee problem On 29 April 2011, when Syrian civilians started to seek refuge in Turkey, they were only 252 in number and were settled in temporary camps. "As their numbers grew towards the end of 2011, the government extended 'temporary protection' to Syrian refugees, the only country to do so in the region. This was a reflection of Turkey's open door policy, its policy of non-refoulement and its commitment to ensure basic humanitaria

Children detained in their homes during Israeli imposed curfew in Nablus (Photo: Liam Barry) For the past four months, Israel has imposed a full curfew, unprecedented in scope and length, on hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. This curfew constitutes collective punishment, and as such is in contravention of international law. B'T selem has found that in many cases IDF soldiers fire live ammunition at civilians who are outside their homes during curfew. Over the past four months, soldiers have killed fifteen Palestinian civilians in these circumstances. Twelve of the dead were under the age of sixteen. Testimonies presented in the report also describe the firing of tear-gas at civilians, both to notify the residents of imposition of curfew and to punish residents who were ostensibly violating curfew. 'Lethal Curfew' criticizes the lack of clarity of the procedures for imposing and lifting curfews. The testimonies presented in the report indicate that residents often do not know that a curfew has been imposed. This combination of the use of live fire and the lack of clarity makes leaving the house - even in the most urgent circumstances - life endangering. Operation Determined Path began on 21 June 2002. During the course of the operation, the army entered all West Bank cities (except Jericho) and imposed a full curfew on the residents. In many instances, the army also placed residents of nearby towns and villages under curfew. Except for short br

"In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you" (Luke 1:28). These angelic words of greeting recorded in this biblical passage form the opening words of one of the most cherished prayers in Catholic piety referred to as the "Hail Mary." In the years that I have served as a Deacon of the Catholic Church I have found that these words - and the prayer that they intone - are a source of great comfort especially when people are ill, in trouble, or facing death. They bring tremendous comfort to many. Sacred Scripture tells us that Mary was "full of grace", filled with the very life and presence of God. She walked in a deep, abiding and intimate relationship with God. He was with her before she even responded to His invitation. God chose Mary even before Mary chose God. This order is vitally important if we want to grasp the deeper meaning of living the spiritual life. We sometimes seem to think that we brought God into our lives. This is hinted at in the use of popular language that, even if well intended, can lead us to believe that we do the initiating and somehow control the relationship. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus made this clear in His words to His disciples "You did not choose me, I chose you" (St. John 15:16). Sometimes, in

The headline writers for this morning's payroll reports can't really help themselves. In a clickbait world, any kind of record or new high or low is bound to make its way into every article title. The unemployment rate fell to 4.6 percent in November, the lowest since 2007. It isn't surprising to see reporting on the labor statistics focus on that positive aspect. The problem is what is left out of that decline, especially when combined with leading adjectives like "tumbled." This article's headline, for example, from Business Insider declares "Unemployment Rate Tumbles To A 9-Year Low." All of those words are true, including the "tumble" since the rate was 5.0 percent in September. A decline in the unemployment rate having such positive economic connotations leaves the impression that this can only be a very good sign for the economy as a whole. It is a mistaken one, but one that is a perfect microcosm of how the unemployment rate has brought on so much confusion and malformed expectations the past few years. The Household Survey, which is the numerator, showed only 160,000 in job gains in November after declining by 43,000 in October, for a two-month net of just 117,000. In the denominator, the official count of the labor force fell significantly in November, by 226,000, for the second straight month. There was a decline of 195,000 in October, for a two-month net total of negative 421,000. The result is an unemployment rate that drops from 5 percent to 4.6 percent because o

Who Is Behind the Bombing in Islamabad? " What we cannot escape ," one Pentagon policy planner told us, " is a confrontation with Pakistan . Pakistan holds the key to success for us in Afghanistan." Afghanistan: How Does This End? , Swoop, Sept 20, 2008 --- If one wants to make sense of the big bombing that hit the Marriott hotel in Islamabad yesterday, one has to look at the bigger strategic picture. If you believe the usually 'western' media, the U.S. is still an ally of Pakistan and India is still a neutral country. In reality the U.S. and India are allied in a war against Pakistan and China. Foreign policy elements in India and the in U.S. see China as their respective big strategic enemy. But both want - for now - avoid an open conflict. The center of gravity in this silent war against China are the hydrocarbon reserves in Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa and the transport routes for these. The war in Afghanistan and the war in Pakistan can be seen as proxy wars between these three big powers over the energy issue. China is developing the port of Gwader in Baluchistan on the south coast of Pakistan and transport routes from there into its mainland. The port will allow energy flow from Africa and the Middle East to China without Indian naval interference. Just like China is in a strategic alliance with Pakistan, India is in a strategic alliance with Afghanistan. It is developing a road connection from Herat to a port in south Iran. While Pakistan supports some Ta

Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada Government of Canada Re: Taking down the unnecessary barriers that prevent Canadian citizens to be reunited with their loved ones i.e. their parents (immediate family members) Bringing the families of Canadian citizens together should not be determined by a lottery system, but in fact, it is something that should be encouraged and supported with the same degree of compassion as any other humanitarian program. A letter addressed to all Canadians: When a mother sends her only child to a land far away so he could have a better future and hopes that someday she could be reunited with him in his adopted country, only to later learn that it may never happen as a result of the cruel policies which the Government implemented: it sounds a lot more like a broken promise, seems a lot more like a nightmare that got you up in the middle of the night-Doesn't it?. An immigration policy in Canada directed at reuniting the families of young Canadian citizens does exactly that: it tears families apart, and often times for an indefinite period of time. Last year, Canadians took pride in accepting 36,000 refugees from war torn nations such as Syria and Iraq and displayed their compassion on a world stage, and yet the very same country has the policy that enjoys tearing families apart of its own citizens. I have raised my voice today, because I do not think Canadians should be put in a position where they are forced to perceive that spending time with

By Reham Alhelsi 30 March, 2010 Avoicefrompalestine T he Palestinian calendar is full of special days. Growing up, day after day and year after year, we were introduced to these special days, and with time more such days joined our calendar. Almost every month there is something to commemorate; a day to commemorate the Nakba of the Palestinian people, a day to remember the martyrs killed by the Israeli occupation army, a day to remember every crime committed by Israel and its allies against the people of Palestine. And there are days when we celebrate our legitimate rights: we celebrate our right to self-determination by remembering the heroes of our resistance movement, we celebrate our right to live freely in our land by remembering the prisoners imprisoned for freedom, and we celebrate our right to live by celebrating Palestinian mothers, celebrating Palestinian children and celebrating the reason for all other celebrations: we celebrate Palestine. But of all the Palestinian special days, maybe one of the most important days is the Palestinian "Land Day". In addition to the Nakba commemoration day, the "Land Day" was somehow always dominant. It is a day of protest; a day when demonstrations and marches unite Palestinians in occupied Palestine with those in the Diaspora. It is a day we all participate in because it is our day; the day of the Palestinian people and their land. It is a day to commemorate and a day of tribute to those who fell for Palestine, for the land and f

1. Call upon government of India to ratify CAT 2.Facilitate country visit of UN special rapporteur on torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment 3. Stop torture and degrading treatment of Kashmiri prisoners in Indian Jails 4. Bring perpetrator to justice 5. Take measures for the protection of prisoners On 27th of Nov, 2017, Monday several disturbing pictures of the torture of prisoners in Tihar jail including that of Shahid Yusuf, the son of Muhammad Yousaf Shah aka Syed Salahudin hit the social media. There were visible bruises cuts on the bodies of prisoners highlighting the brutal physical assault they had suffered. These pictures generated serious concern in Indian occupied Kashmir but failed to make any news in Indian National media. It was because of the current political discourse in India which has created more hatred towards already people of Kashmir. A committee constituted by Delhi High Court has confirmed torture of Kashmiri prisoners inside the high security Tihar jail in India's national capital. It established that Tamil Nadu state police force personnel have beaten as many as 18 Jail inmates of Tihar Jail. The High Court had termed as "very disturbing" the alleged attack on inmates lodged in a high-risk ward in jail number-1 of the jail on the night of November 21. "We need to take a call. It (the incident) is completely unjustifiable," a bench of acting-Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar had said. "If this i

NATO And The Dangerous Escalation Of US imperialism By Danny Haiphong, www.blackagendareport.com November 20, 2015 NATO And The Dangerous Escalation Of US imperialism 2015-11-20 2015-11-20 https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.png PopularResistance.Org https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2015/08/Putin-love-NATO-no-150x84.jpg 200px 200px If World War III comes, NATO will likely be the source of the conflagration. "The parasitic rulers of the imperial system have calculated that a march to war with Russia and China is a necessary precondition to US dominance." NATO has become imperialism's global strike force. "The NATO-backed destabilization of Libya provided the blueprint for the current proxy war in Syria." " Russia has helped preserve the right of the Syrian people to choose what kind of government leads the nation." The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has arguably been the most utilized tool of imperial war since the Soviet Union fell in 1991. Ironically, the sole purpose of NATO's creation in 1949 was to "contain" revolutionary socialism wherever it emerged. The world was a very different place in 1949. The Soviet Union had developed into an industrialized, socialist state with links to independence struggles all over the world. 1949 was also the year of the Chinese Revolution. These developments pulled nearly a third of the world's population out from imperialism's orbit. NATO was initially impe

Let's briefly look at the history. The 1960s and 1970s were a period with a strong socialist left in Turkey. With the military coup d'etat in 1980 the socialist left, was smashed and a new era began in Turkey. It was Gezi which ended this thirty-year historical period. And if we take a closer look, we can say that even before Gezi, since 2009, there was increased mobilization, resistance, and struggle in all social fields such as at universities, at workplaces, in communities against gentrification, and in ecological and peace movements. If we want to better grasp Gezi we have to point to three things. First of all the current world economic crisis since 2008-9 has, among other things, led to steadily worsening and insecure working relations -- precariousness and poverty became a normality. This has led to massive discontent among laborers, also in Turkey. Gezi did not explicitly defend the economical and political rights of the working class, but it was an expression of the discontent of the working masses created by these economic conditions. You cannot understand Gezi if you don't apply this perspective. Second, there is the problem of freedom and secularism. The people were increasingly confronted with the authoritarian , repressive, and anti-secular attitude of the AKP, interventions in everyday life along the lines of Islamist principles grew. In this respect, Gezi was also an uprising against Islamization and in favor of secularism. On top of it, the AKP war politics i

448 pp. Penguin Press $32.95 W hen I speak on college campuses and tell students that the United States Constitution makes no mention of God, at least half of the audience members invariably shake their heads in disbelief. It usually turns out that the students have confused the Constitution either with the Declaration of Independence, which, of course, does refer to a Creator who has endowed all men with "certain unalienable rights," or with the Pledge of Allegiance, written in 1892 by a Christian socialist minister without any mention of a deity until Congress added "under God" in 1954 as a Cold War rebuke to the officially atheist Soviet Union. It is not that students (including those at historically religious colleges) are antagonistic when told that ours was the first government in the world founded on the authority of "We the People" rather than of God or a king ruling by divine right. They are, however, confused. The secular side of the nation's origins does not fit well with their experience of growing up in a time when every presidential inauguration includes as many representatives of the clergy as it takes to demonstrate that freedom of religion does not mean freedom from religion and presidents end important speeches with "God bless America"--a piety derived from a song written by Irving Berlin in 1918 and having as much to do with the Constitution as Berlin's later hit "White Christmas." Civil libertarians, of whatever religious or nonreligious persuasion, and ou

The detritus of the U.S.-Soviet Union relationship remains a part of the U.S.-Russian relationship. During the Cold War, U.S. policy went from containment to detente to confrontation. Today, the vicissitudes of Russian President Vladimir Putin's engagement with the United States range from the productive--the Iran nuclear deal is one example--to confrontation--Ukraine is a good example--to doing a bit of both--Syria is an example of this. Putin wants Russia to not only have a seat at the table where decisions are made about global international issues but also wants the seat once held by the former Soviet Union. 1 In other words, Putin wants a return to the great power politics of the Cold War and a free hand in the territory that was part of the Soviet Union. In this regard, Putin needs the United States as an adversary, though not necessarily as an enemy. 2 This sort of dynamic allows him to maintain political support at home--he is protecting Russia from an outside threat--which allows him to avoid fixing an economy that is faltering 3 and addressing the corruption that is a significant part of the political scene. 4 Get the Latest on Foreign Policy and Security The incoming team of President-elect Donald J. Trump has sent confusing signals as to how it intends to respond to Russia, as well as whether it wants to take a dramatically different approach to Putin than did President Barack Obama. Trump has had good things to say about the Russian president, and he sent his son

In Goa over the last week, a minister said "Nigerians are like a cancer", and conveniently pushed the blame on Nigerian nationals for the drug trade and a recent protest in the state over a murder. In Mumbai, a local broker published an advertisement about a flat located at Dadar's Hindu Colony on 99acres.com, an online property portal, where among other things he said, "No Muslims". 99Acres in a press release condemned the ad but denied any responsibility saying the company was not liable in a case of prejudice, because as per the IT act they are simply "intermediaries" and their responsibility is to remove offensive content once it is brought to their notice. That Indian society often seems to discriminate against anyone and everyone, and often flaunt it, is not news. This discrimination seems to be everywhere, based on caste, class, gender, skin colour, race, religion, even accents. Add to that list, discrimination based on who we choose to have sex with. This is a more insidious kind of discrimination because sexuality is not always apparent from appearance nor revealed by the surname. After the 99acres story, Firstpost decided to talk to LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people to understand the kind of discrimination they face while renting homes. Jerry J. 31, works in corporate communication, Mumbai. The Catch-22 is that gay couples, if they come out, can face landlord's homophobia and if they do not, they are vulnerable to landlord's bias against single pe

It's incredibly easy to lose sight of the important things in life. We all forget the simple truths about life. Accepting these truths could help you on the path to happiness. If you've got the January blues after returning to work, get a grip and count your blessings. These simple truths will help you put life into perspective. You don't need to be a millionaire to be happy (there's more than one way of being rich) and you don't necessarily need to quit your day job to find happiness. Here's a handy list of 10 truths about life that will help improve your outlook, stop you fretting about the lille things, and find peace. 1. You, and every person you know will die OK, so it's a little morbid and won't necessarily cheer you up. However, this is life's deal, and it's the same deal for all of us. Life is full of meetings and partings. Some lights burn short but bright, others burn longer, but the reality is we all live a short life. It's important to acknowledge this truth if you're letting life pass you by. Making the most of each day doesn't necessarily mean throwing in your job and taking up skydiving. Of course we all have to do the mundane stuff too (especially if you have children!). However, putting life into perspective can help you enjoy the little things on a day to day basis. Live in the moment, appreciate everything, and you can then go after the things you really want. 2. You, or anyone else, could die at any moment It's good to remember this fact every day, particu

Judges, unlike pundits, must limit themselves to that which can be proven. And as legislators have wised up and learned to speak carefully and preserve deniability, direct evidence of nefarious legislative intent will nearly always be lacking. The Texas legislature is particularly expert at this. The abortion bill's author, state Rep. Jodie Laubenberg, welcomed its passage by saying: "I am proud of the step we've taken to protect both babies and women. I think it speaks volumes about who we are as humanity." And Texas Governor Rick Perry said the provisions "improve the quality of care women receive, ensuring that any procedure they undergo is performed in clean, sanitary and safe conditions, by capable personnel." Patient safety, of course, is as present in their statements as the fetuses. So intention-seeking judges are left with nothing more than context and guesswork. A few judges have embraced the opportunity to conjecture, and the mind-reading of the press has begun to seep into the courts. In his abortion rights opinion , Judge Lee Yeakel explains that although he "is not required" to examine the legislature's motivations, he has chosen to do so anyway. He concludes that the law was "intended to close existing licensed abortion facilities." Similarly, Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos, the federal judge who struck down Texas' voter ID law, didn't just find the law's effects unconstitutional; she went out of her way to accuse the Texas legislature of deliberate discrimination.

"Aye, aye! If I was yo' man, I wouldn't let you leave the house alone." The idea for #YouOkSis was born when Jones intervened in a street harassment situation on behalf of a young mother pushing a stroller. The word "sis" is a word that is fairly specific to the black community, and Jones addressed why her focus is on black women. "A lot of the conversations about street harassment in the mainstream media only show white women as the faces of victims. Rarely do you see black women as the face of the victim," said Jones. When the #YouOkSis campaign launched on July 10, there was a lot of support and sharing of stories and strategies but also a notable amount of criticism. "I was not at all surprised at the negative response. Any time an oppressed group speaks out, people react negatively to that. It was a small, but vocal group (mostly men and mostly black people) who did not understand anything about what we're doing. They had conspiracy theories that were fed by trolls who have had issues with me for a while," explained Jones. Some of Jones's detractors even accused her of being some kind of federal agent plant whose purpose is to further exacerbate the plight of the black man in the United States judicial system. "We are not advocating for police intervention or criminalization of black men when it comes to street harassment. This is a movement rooted in community involvement," explained Jones. Given the fact that the #YouOkSis campaign launched online, it only makes sense

American citizen Furkan Dogan was killed by Israeli forces as they raided the Mavi Marmara ship on May 31, 2010. (Photo via Associated Press) In May 2010, 18-year-old American citizen Furkan Dogan was shot at point-blank range by Israeli naval commandos as he was standing on the deck of a ship and filming the violent raid on the flotilla to Gaza. It took three days for the U.S. to contact his family-and that was after the U.S. made repeated inquiries to the government of Israel for information about his death. That information was recently revealed by the Center for Constitutional Rights after obtaining documents that have now been published as a result of Freedom of Information Act requests to the U.S. government. The documents reveal new details on the U.S. government's actions in the aftermath of the flotilla. In the immediate aftermath of the flotilla raid, Ahmet Dogan, the father of Furkan, desperately called U.S. officials to inquire about the whereabouts of his son, who was a passenger on the flotilla trying to break the blockade of Gaza. Ahmet did not know where his son was, but was extremely worried after he saw news reports stating that the Israeli military had violently raided the ship in international waters and killed 9 passengers in the early morning hours of May 31, 2010. On June 3, 2010, Ahmet Dogan identified his son's body as being amongst the dead after he saw his son's body riddled with bullets in Turkey. That same day, e-mail messages between U.S. officia

Turkish regimes committed their greatest attacks on Anatolian Christians during the 1914-1923 genocide against Greeks, Armenians, and Assyrians (Syriacs/Chaldeans). Sadly, there has been no public protest in Turkey against the government's refusal to acknowledge the genocide, in which at least three million Christians were killed. Pictured above: Armenian civilians, escorted by Ottoman soldiers, marched through Harput, April 1915. ( American Red Cross/Wikimedia Commons) Since the Trump administration's official recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been ramping up his anti-Israel rhetoric, calling the country " a state of occupation and terrorism ." This is worse than ironic. The Jews are not "occupiers" in their ancient native homeland, where they have lived for more than 3,000 years. Turks, on the other hand, 3,000 years ago were most likely in Central Asia, nowhere near the area that is now Turkey. To add hypocrisy to injury, Erdogan also said about his own country, "Let it be known that there has never been any holocaust or genocide in this nation's past. There's no campaign of ethnic cleansing, massacres, persecution, or torture in this nation's history." Oh really? The cities in today's Turkey -- most of which are in Anatolia (Asia Minor) and the Armenian highlands -- were actually built by Greeks, Armenians, and Assyrians; and Jews have lived there since antiquity. Turkic jihadists from Central Asia invaded and co

(AINA) -- The quotes we believe in, say a lot about who we are. His favorite quote is: "A musician must have the heart of a gypsy and the discipline of a soldier." His name is Elden and he's a soldier at heart. He is a young man who lives in the epicenter of the Assyrian homeland. He can hear the steady heartbeat of Assyria pounding in the ancient tombs of his ancestors. He can feel the pulse of his nation pumping life into his veins. He knows the history of the Assyrians who have walked the land he treads on. His cradle rocked where civilization was once born. A common ancestry links him to me, but our realities are a world apart. "I finished my high school in Assyrian language. The dream is still going on here," explains Elden. "Our mother tongue, our language is preserved. There are schools that teach in Assyrian language. All subjects are translated to Assyrian. Can you believe that?" I envy Elden's excitement for having graduated from an Assyrian school though I realize the hefty price tag attached to that privilege. "I believe in unity. I hate discrimination. I am Assyrian," says Elden in no uncertain terms. He is one of the children of Assyria. He was only a boy when the war in Iraq started. But growing up in a war-zone, childhood is short lived. Now at twenty-one, he has seen more than his Assyrian brothers and sisters outside of Iraq will ever witness. The Internet is his connection to the outside world. From his home in Iraq, he sends me an urgent message: "Our fell

Palestinian construction workers in the industrial zone of Mishor Adumim, in the occupied West Bank. (Reuters / Amir Cohen) Ready to join the resistance? Sign up for Take Action Now and we'll send you three actions every Tuesday. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation's journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation , check out our latest issue . Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. Fight Back! Sign up for Take Action Now and we'll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation's journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation , check out our latest issue . Travel With The Nation Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine? Labor leader Hatem Abu Ziadeh has quietly made history. In February, the 45-year-old Palestinian father of six from Jericho sat down with Morris Zarfati, the owner of the Zarfati car-repair garage in the Mishor Adumim Industrial Zone in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. For years a "war" had raged between the two men following

As Gordon Robertson, CEO of Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) and son of Pat Robertson, gears up to release the gripping new docu-drama "In Our Hands," he says Americans need to realize that a percentage of foreign aid they send to Palestine is funding terrorism. Marking the 50th Anniversary of the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War, CBN Documentaries is bringing "In Our Hands: The Battle for Jerusalem" to audiences next week. The film brings to life the miracle battle of paratroopers' hard-won victory at Ammunition Hill that reclaimed Jerusalem's Old City and the Western Wall. Expand | Collapse (Photo: Facebook/In Our Hands) "In Our Hands" tells the story of Israel's 55th Paratrooper Brigade and how Israel Defense Forces risked everything for the sake of their homeland, 2017. Narrated by Robertson, "In Our Hands" hits theaters nationwide for a one-night screening held by Fathom Events on May 23. When asked what he thought westerners are most unaware about in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict that still exists today, Robertson took something straight from the headlines to help make his point. "Mahmoud Abbas was in the White House and he made a declaration to President Trump, assuring Trump that the children and grandchildren being raised in the Palestinian Authority territory, were being raised to honor peace. I'm sorry that's an absolute lie! We ran a story on "The 700 Club" this morning going into that [story] complete with video clips of Palestinian children talking about Jews a

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the architect of the recent agreement with Secretary of State John Kerry to remove chemical weapons from Syria, spoke with Lally Weymouth at the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Tuesday. Lavrov made it clear that Russia is determined to see Syria remain unified, but that it does not insist that President Bashar al-Assad remain in power. Excerpts: Sergei Lavrov: It addressed important issues, and he stated willingness to cooperate on resolving problems in the Middle East and to help us find common approaches, which is the key for the international community. ... No one country can solve problems which are becoming trans-border, transnational, common threats and challenges. L.W.: President Obama spoke about enforcement of the Syrian chemical weapons agreement that you and Secretary Kerry came up with. Where do you think the United Nations Security Council resolution will end up? Do you see some enforcement mechanism being built into the resolution? S.L.: The chemical weapons problem in Syria is first of all an issue for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons [OPCW]. The president of Syria addressed the secretary general of the United Nations and the director general of the OPCW with a formal request to accede to the Chemical Weapons Convention. . . . S.L.: Yes, President Assad. He asked formally to accede to the convention and now he's under legal obligation derived from this convention. And the steps of the Syrian g

The journalist Yara Badr , wife of the recently released media activist Mazen Darwish, describes how Mazen refused to allow Bashar al-Assad's security state to crush Syria's civic, intellectual and cultural life. Yara and Mazen Darwish in Damascus. I sometimes think I know Mazen Darwish better as a rebel, as a dissident, and as an influential figure in Syrian society than I do as a husband, since the Syrian authorities did not give us the chance to spend more than five months together under the same roof. We were married on 16 September 2011, six months after the start of the Syrian revolution, and arrested in Damascus on 16 February 2012. I was released after three months. Mazen was released from prison September 2015. Prison was a risk he knew he was taking when, in 2004, he returned to Syria from France, where he had been living in exile for a number of years. My first fight with Mazen was about the West and Syria. I was speaking about the differences in lifestyle between Syria and Europe, but Mazen raised his voice and said: 'You don't know what it's like to live as a second-class citizen.' In truth, I did not even know the meaning of the word 'citizenship'. Mazen knew. That is why he gave up all that France has to offer and, of his own free will, came home to fight for citizenship in his own country. The first issue he took on was freedom of expression. Instead of speaking truth to power, Syria's media did nothing but dictate the lessons of the regime to the people. In r

Bill Dienst Palestine 29 December 2005 Imad J. Tomaty, director of Terre des Hommes, speaks to the delegation (Dr. Bill Dienst) March 8, 2005 Hebron and Bethlehem ( Al-Khalil wa Bayt-lehem in Arabic) -- Our bus uneventfully passes through Kiryat Arba'a, clears the northern checkpoint and curves around terraced Palestinian hillsides with fruit trees in spring bloom. In a roundabout way, we are back in the city of Hebron, but this time in a section of the city which is not under curfew; people are going about their daily business. Terre Des Hommes We tour a glass factory, and then disembark at the Hebron Community Mental Health Program sponsored by Terre des Hommes. We are met by Imad J. Tomazy, the program coordinator and his staff. Mr. Tomazy is a clinical psychologist who received his master's degree at Al Quds University in Jerusalem. His office serves multiple purposes: it is a mental health counseling center, a social center, and an educational and advising center. According to Mr. Tomazy, 40.5 percent of the children in the Hebron area have been exposed to severe violent trauma such as shootings and explosions, and 11.2 percent of the population have directly experienced war trauma themselves. With children, this results in psychosomatic symptoms such as somatization into chronic physical complaints that have no medical explanation, hyperactivity, nightmares, and bedwetting, amongst others. Symptoms can differ in boys and girls. Boys have an outlet by being out on the st

From A World to Win News Service The Great Jailbreak in Gaza--Escape to Where? Photo shows Palestinians in Gaza on January 25, streaming across the Gaza/Egypt border at Rafah after huge sections of the border barrier were demolished. Israel had imposed a complete blockade of fuel, electricity and food, on top of a year of partial blockades that had already inflicted record levels of hunger, disease and unemployment among Gaza's 1.5 million people. [Photo: AP ] January 28, 2008. A World to Win News Service. Just when Israel was squeezing its hardest to regain control over Gaza, as a central element in the Annapolis plan for American hegemony in the Middle East, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians--as much as half of Gaza's 1.5 million population--broke free. [ Revolution editors' note: The "Annapolis plan" refers to what came out of the conference on the Middle East that took place last November. For analysis, see the A World to Win News Service article "Annapolis--A Short Balance Sheet" in Revolution #112, available online at revcom.us.] It was a great week in Rafah, a sight that delighted people all over the world. But then the sunny, cold weather gave way to drenching rains and the roads turned to mud, and some harsh truths about the wider world began to sink in. When Palestinians in Gaza first marched to the border with Egypt and demanded that it be opened January 22, Egyptian police attacked them with batons, water cannons, tear gas and gunfire, wounding four. In the ea

Blood Lust Mars India's Tiananmen Moment The mere passage of laws and amendments will fail to make a dent when police forces enjoy impunity, society remains deeply patriarchal and son-preference as well as other anti-female practices remain V iolence against women and sexual harassment are such daily occurrences that only the most egregious and horrendous make front page news, although other not so prominent incidents are stored away in the collective conscience. "Guilt" and - in South Asia - "family honour" have a powerful hold, and most incidents of even horrific violence get suppressed. But the gruesome gang-rape of a young woman in a bus in New Delhi in mid-December, the long wait for reports of her precarious condition and her eventual death caught the conscience of most Indians with access to mass media. Although there are continuing questions on the part of the marginalized sections of India as to why the rapes and gang-rapes that members of their communities suffer regularly fail to be noticed by the mainstream media, there seems to be a consensus of hope that this is a moment for possible future change in gender relations in India. Demotix/Chinky Shukla . Protesters walk through tear gas as police as they march to the Presidential House in Delhi. All rights reserved. It has been likened to the Tunisian and the Egyptian pro-democracy movements of 2011. Another comparison could be with the two Tiananmen movements - of 1976 following the death of Zhou Enlai and the 1989

Saturday October 3, 2015 With some 125 strikes in three days the Russian bombing campaign continues to build. The US media is now obsessed with the idea that Russia may be using "dumb bombs" instead of Syrian "barrel bombs". This is becoming a new propaganda meme. But videos from the Russian airbase show that at least some of the planes are armed with KAB-500S-E satellite (GLONAST) guided bombs which are precise "smart" bombs. (Other pictures and video from the Russian air base show a quite comfortable life including air conditioned quarters, a mess tent, Gulaschkanonen, a bakery, a laundry etc. This base is not an improvised short-term installation.) Besides that how is it more humane to kill by a precise bomb than by a "dumb bomb" or "barrel bomb". Gaza was bombed by the Israelis with (US produced) smart bombs. That did not lead to less destruction or killing. The recent Saudi (US produced) bomb on the Yemen wedding that killed 130 people was also "smart" and hit right where it was targeted at. The Russians bombed, as I earlier described , mostly in the corridor up to the Turkish border which is in the hand of al-Qaeda, Ahrar al Shams and CIA mercenaries. It also bombed Raqqa, the Syrian capital of the Islamic State and killed a dozen fighters. In response to that the Islamic State canceled Friday prayers in Raqqa seemingly out of fear that any congregation of IS fighters would now get bombed. Funny. The US claimed for a year that it was seriously bombing the Islamic State.

As soon as the news broke last week that Disney's new Beauty and the Beast movie would feature an "exclusively gay moment," Franklin Graham called for a boycott of Disney in a Facebook post that has since been shared almost 100,000 times. The next day, a drive-in theater in Alabama announced that it would not show the movie, while, even before Franklin Graham's comment was posted, the conservative group One Million Moms called for a Disney boycott, with a clear warning : "Alerting all parents! In a first for the Disney Channel, a Disney XD show subtly displayed several gay kisses in an episode that aired a couple of days ago." Over at LifeSiteNews, a petition to boycott Disney has already amassed over 100,000 signatures in just 5 days, carrying this headline : "SIGN THE BOYCOTT: Tell Disney 'NO' to LGBT agenda in Beauty and the Beast - #BoycottDisney." Should we applaud Graham and the movie theater and One Million Moms and LifeSiteNews? More specifically, should we join the boycott? Writing an opinion piece for USA Today , Jonathan Merritt, known as a more moderate conservative (and himself admittedly same-sex attracted), addressed what he described as the "Flaming hypocrisy" in evangelical calls for a Disney boycott, also arguing that, "Avoiding the subject of homosexuality will not prepare kids for the real world." He wrote: "Conservative Christian outrage over any positive portrayals of LGBT people in film and television is a tale as old as time, but this effort seems part

Author`s name Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey 13 Sep 2017 at 18:14 The people of Afghanistan have had truly enough of Western imperialist barbarism Interview with ANDRE VLTCHEK by ALESSANDRO BIANCCHI, Chief Editor of Anti-Diplomatico 1) AB: The geographic location of Afghanistan has always occupied a central role. The April peace talks between Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Russia and China seemed to have put an end to the persistent and dominant American presence in the country. What's your opinion? AV: What you have mentioned is extremely important, but I'm not ready to celebrate, yet. This could be, at least in theory, the first step towards the end of one of the most destructive and brutal occupations in NATO's history, or in what the US mainstream press likes to describe as "the longest American war." Let us also not call it only the "American presence". I know some Europeans lately love to portray themselves as some kind of victims, but they are definitely not. Europe is at the core of this entire global nightmare. And the US is nothing else other than its creation: it is Europe's offspring. In many ways, the United States is Europe. The UK is now well behind this horror through which Afghanistan is being forced to go through, at least theoretically; a sadistic revenge for all former British defeats in the country. The UK is responsible for more massacres worldwide than any other country on Earth. And now it is shaping the US and in fact the entire Western imperialism, ideolo

Kathryn Moody : Investors, Are You Ready for the Next Global Crisis? Manuel Schiffres Mutual Fund Rankings, 2014 Meghan Streit : Pitching In When Caregivers Need Help Janet Bond Brill, Ph.D., R.D.N., F.A.N.D : How to prevent a second (and first) heart attack thru diet The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington : Caprese is a light, fresh salad; the perfect quick and easy accompaniment to any summer meal Mark Steyn : You Want Nazis? Jonathan Tobin : Care about the Jewish state's future? Obama, in interview, reveals even more reasons to worry Alan M. Dershowitz : Confirmed: Needless death and destruction in Gaza Katie Nielsen : As a mother, I'm all I need to be Cameron Huddleston : 18 Retailers That Offer Price Adjustments Nellie S. Huang : The Best Health Mutual Funds to Buy Now Brierly Wright, M.S., R.D. : Try these 'secret-weapon' foods to boost your changes of losing weight The Kosher Gourmet by Jessica Yadegaran : Take some relish in pickled goodies (5 recipes!) Kimberly Lankford : 50 Ways to Cut Your Health Care Costs James K. Glassman : Investors, Are You Ready for the Next Global Crisis? The Kosher Gourmet by Nick Malgieri : Chocolate molten delight with creme anglaise is a simple yet elegant make-ahead dessert KOLKATA, India - The 21-year-old Hindu college student was having a quiet breakfast with her mother when her phone pinged with a terrifying message. Her name was on a hit list. She and her Muslim boyfriend had been targeted publicly on Facebook along with abo

In over 40 years since he plunged into social life, there was never an occasion for which Hindu Hriday Samrat (the King of Hindu Hearts) Bal Thackeray lacked an opinion. Whether it was on national politics, arts, sports or any other issue, he always had something witty or vitriolic to say and excelled in bringing the country's financial capital to a standstill whenever needed. Born Bal Keshav Thackeray, to writer and political leader Keshav Sitaram Thackeray, on 23 January 1926 he perhaps had an early exposure to the regional politics of the time as his father was an integral part of the Samayukta Maharashtra movement to form the state of Maharashtra with Mumbai as its capital. Thackeray came to define regional politics in the state. PTI He never matriculated from high school but knew how to wield the language more effectively than most, initially using them to greatest effect in his cartoons. Working as a cartoonist with the Free Press Journal in the 1950s, Thackeray signed his cartoons as 'Mava' and continued with the publication until he left to join another newspaper News Day. The paper didn't survive very long and left without a job he started the weekly Marmik in 1960, along with his younger brother Shrikant, also a cartoonist. Often vitriolic, Marmik espoused the cause of the Maharashtrian people and in 1966, as his influence rose in the state by leaps, Thackeray founded the Shiv Sena, which claimed to be a revival of the army of Maratha king Shivaji. His first rally

19 November, 2014 Countercurrents.org T he state assembly election in Jharkhand has begun. Most of the media houses is speculating about resurgence of BJP in the state with his best ever performance. Unlike in past, this time face of Modi and his work in Gujarat is being projected as the primary agenda of the party. Anti-congress factor is still relevent to play important role. My attempt here is to try and analise how far Modi model of politics and development is fruitful for the tribal voters of a state who came into existance with and for her tribal identity. Jharkhand, along with Chhatisgarh are the only non-North-Eastern states in India having more than 30 per cent tribal population. jharkhand and Chhatisgrah has some other similarities also, for example both state has strong presence of miniral resources along with naxal movement. Both states born in 2000 after a long struggle of tribals for seperate political identity. But unlike Chhatisgarh, the tribals of Jharkhand has, to a large extant, successfully established her tribal identity in politics at provinical and panchayat level. All the chief minister of Jharkhand since her brith are from tribal community while none in the case of Chhatisgarh. Like other tribal regions of the north india, BJP has been establsihing herself in Jharkhand with the help of organisation such as RSS and its allies since late 1990s. The sanskritisation and communalisation of tribals in india is altogether a serious issue which need a seperat

It's extremely rare for Palestinians to oppose any form of anti-Israel terror, and as a rule, they do so only when the costs have become unacceptably high. At the height of the second intifada, for instance, polls consistently showed large majorities favoring suicide bombings. But as the intifada's costs to Palestinian society mounted, support for suicide bombings declined. Similarly, in a poll taken just three months ago, fully 67 percent of Palestinians supported the stabbing attacks, including 57 percent of West Bank residents. Yet in the latest poll, not only did overall support fall to 56 percent but, in the West Bank, 54 percent of respondents opposed the stabbings. The stark contrast between the West Bank and Gaza is instructive. In Gaza, which has produced no lone-wolf attackers and, therefore, suffered no repercussions, a whopping 79 percent of respondents favored continuing the attacks. But in the West Bank, which is the source of most of the attacks, the repercussions have been extremely painful - enough to shift public opinion from 57 percent in favor to 54 opposed in just three months. Not coincidentally, West Bank Palestinians have also begun trying to prevent such attacks. The village of Sa'ir, for instance, held the record for the highest per capita number of terrorists during the intifada's first three and a half months. But since mid-January, it hasn't produced a single terrorist. Why the sudden decline? Because the municipality started a concerted campaign

I would first like to begin with stating the fact that I would like to end religious child abuse worldwide, and I sincerely hope that organisations such as Unicef, Human Rights Watch, the United Nations, Amnesty International, and more can become involved in order to end the brutality that is effecting children. This petition is geared towards President Barack Obama to end religious abuse that is being done to American children at home and abroad, and to immigrant (legal or illegal) children living within the United States or its territories (ie Guam), only because organisations such as Unicef didn't have a direct email link to paste into this petition. Also, within the United States I would like this petition to reach the attention of the American Board of Pediatrics and the American Pediatrics Association. This petition will look more closely at religious abuse within the United States, but again I sincerely hope investigations can be made globally in order to swiftly eradicate religious abuse anywhere. I would like people to support this petition so that we can eliminate physical, ritual, and psychological abuse of children under the name of any religion. 1. Circumcision. Within the United States female circumcision is illegal and carries severe prosecution for those who forcibly circumcise their daughters. The mutilation of boys is not protected whatsoever by law in the United States. Fortunately, there has been a drop from a near 66% in 1979 (some say higher) to 58% in 2

Palestinian boy running away from the teargas in Ofer - 16th of May 2014. (Photo: Julie Couzinet) "It was a case of life and death, and I was within moments of falling victim to the kind of lynch that saw two Israeli soldiers who strayed into Ramallah in 2000 beaten to death by a baying mob," wrote Avi Issacharoff a Middle East analyst for the Times of Israel . Issacharoff was covering a demonstration in the West Bank over the death of two teenagers killed by the Israeli army and says he got pulled away from the frontline by a group of Palestinians - allegedly journalists and/or demonstrators. Since the story broke, Issacharoff has backed away from his most sensational claims, but his initial accusation against Palestinian journalists and the reaction it received points to the great challenges Palestinian journalists face under Israeli occupation. In an article on the incident first published in Hebrew in Walla news and then translated to English for the Times of Israel , Issacharoff described an atmosphere "on the edge of a lynch", triggered by the aggressive attitude of "two Palestinian journalists" who required him to leave. According to Issacharoff, his rescue was only possible with the intervention of two plain clothes Palestinian intelligence officers. Israeli activist Noa Schaindliger later refuted Issacharoff's story in Electronic Intifada . According to other eyewitnesses whose identities will not be disclosed for their own safety, Issacharoff's attitude might have

Fair warning: This blog is not going to be angry. It will not be written in all caps. There will be no vulgarity. And it probably won't go viral. I don't care. What I do care about is the fact I've read over 70+ articles in the past two weeks alone discussing the 2016 election and what I see is a total lack of nuance and a lot of critiques that overgeneralize or underplay the very real role gender plays when people talk about Clinton and/or any other women who dare to step into positions that for so long have only been held by men. What I do care about is how on my Facebook feed and elsewhere, I see well meaning folks called out as sexist jerks for simply offering legitimate critiques of Clinton and what a Clinton presidency might look like. I like nuance. I like messy. I don't like soundbites and simplicity. So, let's play the nuance game. For folks who love Clinton, realize that not every critique poised against her is based in sexism. For those who love Sanders, realize that sexism is very alive in 2016, and that you can love your candidate AND embrace the reality that politicking while female is still an incredibly difficult thing to do. Imagine that. Both/and. For those who haven't yet made up their minds, or don't fall into either of these categories, this is for you, too. So, here is my attempt to create a list of productive ways to critique Hillary Clinton without being a sexist jerk. 1). Do not talk about her voice. Really. Just don't. Earlier this we

THE TURKISH government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is using a deadly car bombing in the capital of Ankara on February 17 as an excuse to escalate its war on the Kurdish struggle--both inside Turkey and in regions of neighboring Syria, Iraq and Iran where Kurds predominate as the world's largest ethnic group without a national state. The suicide bombing was directed at a convoy of Turkish military vehicles in downtown Ankara--28 people were killed and 61 wounded. The attack was clearly intended to kill as many soldiers and civilians as possible. Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) immediately accused the leading Kurdish political party in neighboring Syria, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), and its armed wing, the People's Protection Units (YPG), of carrying out the attack, along with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) within Turkey itself. A Syrian national named Saleh Najjar was named as the perpetrator of the bombing. PYD co-chair Salih Muslim announced in a press release that his party has no idea who Najjar is, and that it rejects Turkey's claim that it is responsible. Fires rage following the car bombing in Ankara The PYD and YPG came to international attention in the fall of 2014 when they successfully defended the city of Kobane, just across the border from Turkey, against an offensive by forces of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The Kurdish forces in Kobane succeeded despite ISIS's superior numbers and firepower and the hostility of a Turki

After years of stagnation, Labour has plunged into chaos. But the dramatic events of recent months have their origins in the preceding decades, during which every part of the labour movement slowly hollowed out, leaving us stranded, with little reach into communities and workplaces. As the world has changed around us, we have stood still. It was in 1978, the year before I was born, that Eric Hobsbawm set out the demographic and social changes that would transform prospects for Britain and the left, in his lecture "The Forward March of Labour Halted?", which traced the movement's decline from its peak in 1945. Now, decades later, we work in call centres not coal mines, the retired and self-employed are a significant electoral force and three-quarters of the workforce is to be found in the private sector. What does the left have to say to them? For those with purchasing power, new technology has brought economic choice and participation while politics remains stuck in the 20th century. We talk of social movements but we remain an analogue force in a digital era, more likely to be organising in factories than on Facebook. George Dangerfield's The Strange Death of Liberal England (1935) and the fate of the Liberal Party should serve as a warning to us; Scotland and Brexit are symptoms of our decline. Political parties must renew, or consign themselves to irrelevance. Labour's unique strength has always been the depth and breadth of our grass roots. So no wonder that, running shor

Israeli authorities have opened the gates of a dam near the Gaza Strip, which led to the flooding of several homes in the enclave, according to the strip's Civil Defense Directorate (CDD). "The [Israeli] army opened the floodgates of a canal leading to central Gaza, which led to the removal of sand mounds along the border with Israel," Gaza's CDD said in a statement. "Opening the levees to the canal has led to the flooding of several Palestinian homes, and we had to quickly evacuate the afflicted citizens," it added. Medical sources told The Anadolu Agency that no casualties have been reported as a result of the flooding. However, hundreds of Gazans had to leave their homes as at least 80 Palestinian homes have been flooded after water levels in the Gaza Valley (Wadi Gaza) rose to three meters and dozens of families were evacuated. The Gaza Ministry of Interior said in a statement on Sunday that civil defence services had worked alongside teams from the Ministry of Public Works to evacuate families. The evacuated families were moved to shelters in al-Bureij refugee camp and in al-Zahra neighborhood sponsored by United Nations. "Israel opened water dams, without warning, last night, causing serious damage to Gazan villages near the border. More than 40 homes were flooded and 80 families are currently in shelters as a result. The dam opening would adversely affect local agriculture as the flooded area included Gazan poultry and animal farms. We are appealing to human rights org

Jerusalem's al-Asqa mosque - one of Islam's holiest sites - received much attention during the summer when Israel blocked Palestinian worshippers from entering it. Some incidents of Israeli brutality around that period nonetheless went unreported by international media. Through my work as a lawyer with the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel , I gathered testimony from victims of one such incident. On 27 July, Israeli police raided the al-Aqsa compound at around 10pm. That was shortly after Israeli authorities had removed the metal detectors and cameras they had placed at the entrance to the compound. The raid, not the first at al-Aqsa that day , was perceived as police exacting revenge on Palestinians who had successfully resisted the restrictions on access to the mosque with two weeks of civil disobedience. Moments after calling on everyone to evacuate the mosque, police officers fired rubber bullets at the unarmed worshippers, injuring several. About 120 Palestinians were rounded up, none of whom resisted arrest. A Palestinian medical team had been providing aid to a worshipper in the mosque before the raid occurred. Members of the team found themselves helping the raid's victims, including a man who was injured by a sponge-tipped bullet. One of the medical team testified that a senior Israeli police officer known as Shlomi "walked towards us and told his troops: 'They're not paramedics, they are all liars, take their vests and fuck them up.'" The police stripped th

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images After struggling through the controversial travel ban, President Donald Trump has tried to make peace with the Muslim world by taking a call from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Furthermore, CIA Director Mike Pompeo headed to Turkey yesterday. While Trump's attempt to reconcile is admirable, he shouldn't trust Erdogan for these seven reasons. 1) Despite his charm offensive, Erdogan doesn't actually like Trump. Currently, Turkish President Erdogan is putting on the charm offensive with President Trump, trying to convince him that the two are really budding friends. However, past experience shows that Erdogan's nice talk is actually cheap talk. When America's election was underway, Erdogan threatened to close the NATO base at Incirlik if Trump was elected. Erdogan also threatened to remove Trump's name from the Trump Towers in Istanbul. And Erdogan saw to it that the Dogan Media Group leader, a close friend of Trump's, was "detained," allegedly to get leverage. That's not how "friends" behave. 2) Erdogan blocked American operations against ISIS. Erdogan's threats against our forces at Incirlik in November were hardly an isolated incident. Earlier in 2016, Erdogan shut down America's operations from that base , which were targeting ISIS. Blocking our attempts to stop this terrorist group are the actions of an enemy regime, not an ally. 3) Erdogan bombed the Syrian Kurds, the only group helping the U.S.

The road to Imran Khan's palatial spread in the hills above Pakistan's capital is a perfect metaphor for his vision of his political career: twisty and pot-holed, but ending in a grand estate. Alone in the beginning but now surrounded by smaller buildings, the house itself is cool and pleasant, with Mughal-era swords arrayed on a coffee table and two playful dogs -- one a German shepherd named Sheru -- romping about the carefully manicured lawn. "I built this house," Khan said as he sat on the shaded verandah eying the sweeping vista overlooking the city. "There was nothing here. It was scrub jungle all around. There was only a dirt track here." For Khan, creating something from nothing could be the slogan for a much-chequered life. A graduate from Oxford and very much a man-about-town in London in the late 1970s, he became one of the world's most admired cricketers. He was captain of Pakistan's team of talented but wayward stars and, with many whispers of autocracy, led them to win cricket's World Cup for the first and only time in 1992. After years of fund-raising, Khan opened a cancer hospital in the memory of his mother in his native Lahore in 1994. He is a conservative Muslim but was married to a Jewish heiress and then divorced, joined politics and for years been somewhat of a joke in Pakistan's unruly democracy. But in the past 15 years, through sheer force of will and a reputation for personal integrity, he has gone from political punch line to a superstar now attract

The New Israel Fund (NIF) has partnered with The Israel Football Association (IFA) to form a new campaign called " Kick Racism Out of Israeli Football ". The campaign was announced through the video "We're all equal - we're all one team", that was released October 28, 2014, to "promote Israel's national soccer teams (men, women, and youth) as a shining examples of equality, tolerance and coexistence." The video is engaging and stars two children and a gaggle of notable Israeli football players. However, back in reality, during the initial stages of this new partnership, and likely during the same timeframe this lovely video was produced, the IFA chose to segregate the Israeli children's national football league in Israel's Triangle area which is home to the majority of Israel's Palestinian citizens. Seriously, we don't make this stuff up. Last month Adalah, The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel filed a petition with the court demanding IFA cancel their decision. Before exploring the blatant hypocrisy on display and the underlying reasons, recently revealed, which led the IFA's discriminatory decision, check out Adalah's press release: 23/10/2014 On Tuesday, 21 October 2014, Adalah filed a petition to the Tel Aviv District Court on behalf of a family demanding the cancellation of the decision by the Israel Football Association (IFA) to divide the children's national football league in the Al-Shomoron area (the Triangle area) into "Shomoron 1", comprised of 12 Jew

During the last two years, North Korea on several occasions has threatened South Korea and the United States with the use of nuclear weapons. It conducted successful nuclear tests in 2006, 2009, 2013 but the last test in 2016 was claimed to be the more powerful hydrogen bomb. Following the test in January, the U.S. is deploying the THAAD missile defense system in South Korea and holding largest joint military drills to protect its ally. Besides, the U.S. is pushing for strict sanctions on North Korea with the assistance of other major powers. Now in the backdrop of this situation, the Marshall Islands case and coming Nuclear Security Summit 2016, India is continuing the path to violate the nuclear nonproliferation regimes. Matter of concern is, whether the U.S. is also going to push the strict sanctions on India as well or not? India conducted two missile tests this month, first was Agni-I on 14th March with range of 700km likely to target Pakistan and the second one was secret K-4 that has a range of 3500 km likely to target China. Undoubtedly, India is pushing the nuclear arms race further as compared to Pakistan or China, probably the missile test ratio is 3:1/1, respectively. Since, India is the first state to nuclearize Indian Ocean, sea based submarine delivery system will give India the capability to go for a decapitating first strike against any state. By this opinion, I have no intention to unnecessarily criticize the Indian nuclear program but the danger of nuclear

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Maayan Lubell GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A truce between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip, largely held on Saturday a day after one of the most fierce flare-ups along the volatile border in years. Hamas said it had agreed to the truce with Israel, a day after clashes killed an Israeli soldier and four Palestinians, three of them Hamas fighters. A senior Israeli official confirmed a truce was in place. The Israeli military declined to comment on the ceasefire but a military spokeswoman said civilians could resume normal activities. In what appeared to be an isolated incident, with no reports of casualties, an Israeli tank fired on a Hamas post in Gaza after Palestinian suspects breached the border fence and entered Israeli territory before retreating back into Gaza, the military said. There were no other reports of unrest in the area by 1300 GMT on Saturday. On Friday, Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli soldier and the Israeli military launched dozens of strikes that killed three Hamas fighters. A fourth Palestinian was killed by Israeli gunfire during a protest near the border. "With Egyptian and United Nations efforts it has been agreed to return to the era of calm between (Israel) and Palestinian factions," said Fawzi Barhoum, spokesman for the Hamas Islamist group that controls Gaza. The soldier was the first member of Israel's army to be killed on the Gaza front since a seven-week 2014 war between Israel and Hama

Even before Vice President Joe Biden met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara last week, the Turks were displeased. The day before, Biden had granted interviews only to opposition media and slammed the government for stepping on freedom of speech. "That's not the kind of example that needs to be set [for the rest of the region]," said Biden. He was referring to, among other issues, the arrest of two Turkish journalists who published information, almost certainly false, claiming that Ankara sends arms across the Syrian border to the Islamic State. He was also referring to the detention of 15 academics for signing a petition denouncing Erdogan's counterinsurgency against the Kurdistan Workers' party ( PKK ). The Turkish government overreacted in both cases, and under normal circumstances, it would have been unexceptional for a visiting American vice president to make remarks like Biden's. But circumstances aren't normal. The Obama White House has been putting regional allies like Israel, Saudi Arabia, and now Turkey in the deep freeze. At the same time, it has excused Iran for setting fire to Saudi diplomatic missions and taking American sailors hostage. The Turks understood Biden's remarks--and were likely correct in doing so--as being aimed less at free speech than at bullying them into following the administration's lead on regional policies, especially on Syria. Secretary of State John Kerry's peace talks in Geneva are about one big thing: ending the war against Sy

Three years of siege, famine and bombing of his Damascus refugee camp didn't kill celebrated Palestinian musician Aeham al-Ahmad, but something died inside him the day militants burnt his beloved piano in front of his eyes. It was then that Ahmad, whose music had brought consolation, even a bit of joy, to Yarmouk camp's beleaguered residents, decided to join thousands of others and seek refuge in Europe. "They burned it in April, on my birthday. It was my most cherished possession," Ahmad said. "The piano wasn't just an instrument. It was like the death of a friend." For 27-year-old Ahmad, whose songs of hope amid the rubble of Syria's largest Palestinian camp became a social media sensation last year, "it was a very painful moment." Since Syria's civil war struck Yarmouk in 2013, the once-thriving neighborhood saw its population dwindle from as many as 160,000 Palestinians and Syrians to barely 18,000 people. The camp was caught up in fighting among government forces and militants and suffered a devastating siege by the Syrian army. About 200 people died from malnutrition and a lack of medicines. Ahmad became a symbol of hope, helping Yarmouk's people -- particularly its children -- forget for a moment the brutal war raging around them with every note he played. "The days when I felt the most helpless were when I had money, but I could not get milk for my year-old baby Kinan, or when my older son Ahmad would ask me for a biscuit," he said. "It was the worst feeling." But aft

Most Popular The Princeton politics professor Gary Bass has a strong claim for being the house historian of humanitarian interventionism. This post was formerly filled by Power, whose "A Problem From Hell": America and the Age of Genocide (2002) remains the most popular account of America's sins of omission when it comes to stopping civil wars, mass slaughter and genocide around the world. In Power's universe, you are either a voice in the wilderness crying "Genocide!" (Raphael Lemkin, William Proxmire, George McGovern) or a morally inert bystander. Bass, who was Power's colleague at The Economist when both reported on the Kosovo war, took a marginally more subtle approach in his own history of humanitarianism, Freedom's Battle (2008). His aim was not only to indict American inaction in the past, but to highlight a noble tradition of humanitarianism to which we could subscribe, stretching back at least to Byron's and Gladstone's attempts in the nineteenth century to rescue Greek nationalists and Bulgarian Christians from their Ottoman oppressors. Bass did not deny that British imperial interests vied with humanitarian motives, but he argued that it was possible to isolate those interests from some genuinely positive effects. As a work of history, Freedom's Battle displayed the limits of aggressively reinstating moralism in our understanding of the past [see Samuel Moyn, " Spectacular Wrongs ," October 13, 2008]. Bass's consistent reliance on moral judgments in lieu of causal

Friday, Sep 9, 2016, 2:23 pm 150 Million Workers in India Just Staged the Largest Strike in History To Resist Neoliberalism BY Theo Anderson Email this article to a friend Unions have a 12-point "charter of demands" that includes not only higher minimum wages but better enforcement of labor laws, an end to privatization of the public sector, guaranteed pensions and social security protections for all workers, and an end to foreign investment in India's railway, insurance and defense industries. (Centre of Indian Trade Unions/ Facebook) Trade unionists in India staged a nationwide strike last week that affected key sectors of the nation's economy, including transportation, healthcare, finance, energy, coal, steel, defense and education. Organizers reportedly claimed that more than 150 million people took part and that it cost the economy some $2.5 billion, making the strike the "world's largest." Those numbers could not be independently confirmed, but this much is clear: Workers are angry at the Indian government and unwilling to accept its neoliberal economic agenda without a fight. Union leaders had asked for negotiations in March, and called the September 2 strike when government officials ignored them. On August 30, in a last-minute attempt to head off the strike, the government proposed to increase the minimum wage for unskilled workers employed by the central government, from about $3.70 to $5.20 per day. The offer wasn't enough. Union leaders rejected the proposal,

After paralyzing Islamabad for days, the crowds at boisterous protests demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif are starting to thin out. But even if Pakistan's current political standoff comes to an end, the country's deeper political crisis won't. Sharif, who leads the conservative and pro-business Pakistan Muslim League party dominant in the populous Punjab province, has successfully rallied to his side most political parties represented in parliament. A consensus seems to be emerging within Pakistan's political class that the country's fragile democratic system should not be derailed. But the underlying causes of instability -- terrorism, ethnic and sectarian conflict, and economic stagnation -- remain unaddressed. The protests were initiated by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan and Canada-based cleric Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri. The two political allies are clearly tapping into the disenchantment of Pakistan's urban middle class, which wants social and political reform even if it does not agree on what reforms to adopt. Sharif's style of governance, which puts family members and friends in charge of key government functions, doesn't appeal to most Pakistanis. Nor is Sharif's tendency to try to marginalize all opposition and his confrontational approach towards Pakistan's all-powerful military winning him many supporters. Most Pakistani analysts now seem to agree that Khan and Qadri would not have dared to challenge Sharif in the streets had they not bee

Contributor November 20, 2017 In the wake of the recent tragedies in Sutherland Springs and Las Vegas, many people are offering " thoughts and prayers " to the victims and their families that they may have never met, but their hearts are collectively breaking for. "Thoughts and prayers" is not a trite statement meaning "I'm saying I care about you, but I really don't want to give you the time of day." Prayer is a beautiful thing - one of the most beautiful sentiments we can offer to another human being. True prayer is saying, "I care about you so much, I'm going to go to God on your behalf, and ask Him to do what only He can do in your life and situation." Prayer is the Greater Work Even if you don't believe in God, prayer is a beautiful thing to share together. You don't have to agree with other people's beliefs about God and faith to show them kindness and respect, or to see prayer as beautiful. If you think about it, a significant portion of the world identifies with faith in some higher power, and the necessity of prayer - Christians and other major faiths represent a vast majority of the world's population who can at least agree on the need for prayer on behalf of our world, and the importance of prayer in times of tragedy. As a Christian myself, I believe prayer is one of the most important things we can do. Now don't get me wrong - I believe we should always pray, but I don't believe we should only pray. There are times we should do more than just pray (I wrote about t

Critique of anti-Zionism by the Italian communist journal Il Lato Cattivo. Dear comrades, Let me give you my opinion about what happened around the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and forgive me if I am forced to dwell on this question. So-called anti-Zionism -- with the alibi of staying in the concrete -- changes more and more the present events into a metaphysical question. On the one hand, this is normal: it is characteristic of the "anti" to have an absolute enemy , compared to which the other enemies become relative enemies. At the moment it is Israel's turn to be the target, and in my opinion it is necessary to distinguish oneself from that. It's not the assault on the synagogues during the demonstrations of Saturday July 19th in Paris that ought determine this necessity, even if it makes it stronger in some measure. It is not necessary to exaggerate the importance of the uncontrolled behaviors that occurred; it is certain however that they are symptomatic of something -- of a drift -- whose possibility is consubstantial to anti-Zionism. The confusion between Jews, Zionism, and Israel, the fluidity with which these different terms become interchangeable, if they do not appear in the public speeches and in the programmatic slogans, can nevertheless be noticed in the informal conversations that can be heard here and there in the demonstrations, and are on the other hand obvious enough. It is absolutely not the point to operate the slightest defense of the state of Israel --

From A World to Win News Service The UK Referendum on Leaving the European Union: Stop Thinking Like Brits (and Europeans!)--Start Thinking About Humanity! June 13, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us June 6, 2016. A World to Win News Service. By Robert Borba. On 23 June, Britain will vote on whether to "Remain" in the European Union or "Leave" it. Regardless of the side, this referendum is a reactionary trap. On the one side are those who argue that the best way to control Britain's borders, keep out "hordes of immigrants," unleash the power of Britain's corporations, defeat the country's enemies and project British power globally is to leave the EU. On the other side are those who argue that the best way to control Britain's borders, keep out "hordes of immigrants," unleash the power of Britain's corporations, defeat the country's enemies and project British power globally is to stay in the EU. The central issue being put to the people is quite simply how best to advance Britain's imperial interests. Supporting either side in this debate is not neutral: it only makes people complicit with British imperialism and the horrendous crimes it will continue to carry out, at home, in the Middle East, in Africa and worldwide-- whether as part of the EU or not . The Remain campaign is led by British Prime Minister Cameron alongside Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party and has support from the heads of Britain's key allies--U.S. President Obama, German Chancellor Merkel, France's Hollande

If you're a progressive Canadian, the last 20 years or so have been a depressing, extremely alienating slog through an endless political quagmire with very few appealing participants. The Liberal Party that governed the country throughout much of the '90s and early '00s weren't terrible--they kept us out of Iraq and their reluctance to deregulate the banking industry to the same extent as their Democratic counterparts in America insulated us somewhat from some of the worst fallout of the financial crisis in 2008--but Jean Chretien and his successor Paul Martin weren't exactly champions of leftist values, either. Their slightly-friendlier neoliberalism still resulted in the same wage stagnation, deterioration of public services and growing wealth inequality that seems today to plague all Western democracies. And after the Conservative Party, led by neocon android Stephen Harper, capitalized on the tepid economy and a somewhat ginned-up sponsorship scandal to supplant the Liberals as the country's governing party in 2006, left-leaning Canadian voters spent the next decade voting strategically, often in vain, for whoever stood the best chance at getting rid of them. It was a painful time, as the Conservatives muzzled climate scientists at the behest of the oil industry, presided over the disastrous G20 in Toronto and forced through draconian, civil-rights trampling security omnibus bills in the name of fighting a virtually non-existent threat of international terrorism. Though J

Historical accounts of the Kurds have been a subject of mystery and perplexity for years, and have been seldom discussed by major Western media outlets until recently. Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the ongoing conflict in Syria, Kurds have been romanticized by mainstream media and U.S. politicians alike to justify a Western interventionist narrative in those countries. Ever since the U.S. invaded Syria, the U.S. and Israel have supported the semi-autonomous Kurdistan, with Israel purchasing $3.84 billion dollars worth of oil from them, a move that could have geopolitical and economic ramifications for both parties. In 2015, the Financial Times reported that Israel had imported as much as 77 percent of its oil supply from Kurdistan in recent months, bringing in some 19 million barrels between the beginning of May and August 11. During that period, more than a third of all northern Iraqi exports, shipped through Turkey's Ceyhan port, went to Israel, with transactions amounting to almost $1 billion, the report said, citing "shipping data, trading sources, and satellite tanker tracking." The sales are a sign of Iraqi Kurdistan's growing assertiveness and the further fraying of ties between Erbil and Baghdad, which has long harbored fears that the Kurds' ultimate objective is full independence from Iraq. In 1966, Iraqi defense minister Abd al-Aziz al-Uqayli blamed the Kurds of Iraq for seeking to establish "a second Israel" in the Middle East. He also claimed that "the West

QUESTION: Beyond congratulations, Jen, now that Mr. Netanyahu won, presumably on - by a decisive mandate, on the premise of not ever allowing a Palestinian state, what - one, what is your plan on this track and on the peace process? And second, when the Palestinians go before the United Nations, as they will, will you cast a veto or will you not cast a veto? MS. PSAKI: Well -- QUESTION: Seeking recognition from the international community. MS. PSAKI: -- we are not going to get ahead of any decisions about what the United States would do with regard to potential action at the United - UN Security Council. I will reiterate that it has long been the position of the United States under Republican and Democratic presidents, and it has been the position of successive Israeli governments, that only a two-state solution that results in a secure Israel alongside a sovereign and independent Palestine can bring lasting peace and stability to both peoples. A two-state solution is the only way for the next Israeli Government to secure Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. We believe that it's in the best interests of the United States, Israel, and the region. The prime minister, as we all know, in his comments earlier this week indicated that he is no longer committed to pursuing this approach. Based on the prime minister's comments, the United States is in a position going forward where we will be evaluating our approach with regard to how best to achieve a two-state solution. Obvious

Editor's note: On Oct. 12, 2003, Cal Thomas interviewed former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who died Saturday at age 85. In the interview posted below, Sharon outlined the five conditions that must be met before the peace process could proceed. Also, Sharon commented on the security wall, which he continued to build in the face of UN disapproval, the probability for more attacks in Syria, and the value of preemptive strikes. (See also Marvin Olasky's "A warrior's last battle" from 2006.) Given the recent acts of terrorism, do you consider the "road map" dead? No. If there will be a serious Palestinian prime minister who makes a 100 percent effort to end terrorism, then we can have peace. Each side has to take steps. If terror continues, there will not be an independent Palestinian state. Israel will not accept it if terror continues. Even you have said if we can just get the terrorist incidents down to a certain number, that would qualify for moving ahead. What level are we talking about? I have said that in order to move forward, there should be quiet. If the Palestinians will make 100 percent of effort, but a crazy Palestinian person comes out shooting or something like that, we will take it into consideration. So the next question is, what do I mean by 100 percent effort? First, the terrorists will be arrested, interrogated, punished. Second, Palestinian terrorist organizations will be dismantled--the Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Popular Front, Democratic Front, and all t

Hundreds of bedouin families will be expulsed from the Jordan valley. ( StoptheWall.org ) JORDAN VALLEY , PALESTINE -- In Israel and the Occupied Territories the colour orange is symbolic of opposition to the Gaza 'disengagement'. It can be seen on banners; t-shirts; propaganda material; protesters storming the old city in Jerusalem or the young people with petitions gathering signatures in Israeli bus stations. Orange streamers are handed out at road junctions in Israel and attached to cars flying down the settler-only highways of the West Bank. It therefore came as a surprise to hear that one of the orange streamers was seen attached to a tractor belonging to a Bedouin Palestinian living in the Jordan Valley. When questioned, the man replied, "If they are thrown out of Gaza, they will come here. They are dangerous. We don't want them here." On the 25th of June 2005 an Israeli spokesperson announced a plan intended to increase the number of settlers in the Jordan Valley by 50 percent in one year. The cost of new housing units will be $13.5 million ( U.S. ) in the initial year, and will increase to $32.5 million in the following year. The plan focuses on the development of agriculture and tourism in the valley, with grants of up to $22 million available for agricultural development. Additional economic incentives and benefits will be offered to encourage potential immigrants, particularly newly married couples. The plan has already started to emerge on the ground, as the silv

Watchwoman: We follow NASCAR for many reasons, one of them being that we find NASCAR to be the only sport televised where they pray before every race -- and "99%" of the time "in the Name of Jesus Christ!" They sing the "National Anthem" straight, and almost all pay complete attention, every one of the drivers, pit crews and audience, stand at attention, remove their hats and put their hands over their hearts or salute. They are aligned with racing, religion and patriotism, exactly like the fellow Mark MacCaull, a Southern Baptist and Israel supporter, points out below. February 26 is the first full field NASCAR race of the season at Daytona Beach. Check your local TV listings for its broadcast time in your local. This past Saturday, February 18, there was a "shootout" at Daytona with only 25 cars, only 13 finished. Jeff Gordon (#24, "Drive to End Hunger" car) and Jimmy Johnson (#48, the Lowe's car) my two personal favorites, were involved in a spectacular crash that had me terrified. I thought for sure that Gordon would be severely injured, but he was okay. Gordon flipped over, slid for 1,000 feet on his driver's side door and barreled rolled over and over and over and over and landed upside-down. It was the first time Gordon ever turned over. Kyle Busch (#18, M&M's car) sometimes referred to as vile-Kyle, surely deserved to win the shootout. He drove the wheels off his car, driving like a true champion. Several times Kyle was turned sideways during the race, but artful

By Associated Press | November 24, 2015, 20:53 EDT Printed from: http://newbostonpost.com/2015/11/24/putin-disputes-russian-jet-over-turkey-when-shot-down/ This frame grab from video by Haberturk TV shows a Russian warplane on fire before crashing on a hill as seen from Hatay province, Turkey, Tuesday. (Haberturk TV via AP) MOSCOW (AP) -- Turkey shot down a Russian warplane on Tuesday that it said ignored repeated warnings and crossed into its airspace from Syria, killing at least one of the two pilots in a long-feared escalation in tensions between Russia and NATO. Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced what he called a "stab in the back" and warned of "significant consequences." The shoot down -- the first time in half a century that a NATO member has downed a Russian plane -- prompted an emergency meeting of the alliance. The incident highlighted the chaotic complexity of Syria's civil war, where multiple groups with clashing alliances are fighting on the ground and the sky is crowded with aircraft bombing various targets. "As we have repeatedly made clear we stand in solidarity with Turkey and support the territorial integrity of our NATO ally, Turkey," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference after the meeting of the alliance's decision-making North Atlantic Council, called at Turkey's request. The pilots of the downed Su-24 ejected, but one was killed by Syrian rebel fire from the ground as he parachuted to Earth, said the Russian general staff

Thanks to a harsh state law, the wait time for women to get an abortion in Texas is becoming dangerously long -- and a pending court decision could make it even worse. A new report released by the Texas Policy Evaluation Project -- a research group based at the University of Texas at Austin that's been tracking the state's reproductive health policy over the past four years -- finds that recent clinic shutdowns have greatly limited access to timely abortions statewide. In some cases, women had to wait nearly a month to be seen. In others, clinics had to turn women away, since they had no available appointment slots open. As wait time to get an abortion increases, the estimated proportion of abortions performed in the second trimester increases. These later surgical abortions, although safe, are associated with a higher risk of complications and are significantly more costly to women than an earlier medical abortion. And even staunch abortion opponents are more opposed to late-term abortions compared to earlier procedures, citing the scientifically disputed theory that fetuses can feel pain after 20 weeks gestation. All these laws are being passed in quick succession without real data to challenge them. The researchers behind the new study have been collecting data since the initial passage of the 2013 law, known as HB2 , considered among the harshest anti-abortion measures in the country. HB2 imposes harsh restrictions on abortion clinics and providers under the guise of imp

Families of those killed in October 2000 protest in West Jerusalem following the release of the Mazuz report, January 2008. ( Adalah ) On 2 October 2000, as the Israeli army was beginning its ruthless crackdown on the second intifada in the occupied territories, 17-year-old Aseel Asleh joined tens of thousands of other Palestinian citizens across Israel in taking to the streets in protest and in a show of solidarity with their kin across the Green Line. A firm believer in nonviolence, Asleh wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the logo of a prominent Jewish and Arab coexistence group, Seeds of Peace, as he marched alongside family, friends and neighbors through his town of Arrabeh in northern Israel. Within hours Asleh was dead, face down in an olive grove. A bullet, fired from a police gun at point-blank range, had severed an artery near the back of his neck in what looked suspiciously like an execution. Earlier he had been seen fleeing through the grove, chased by a police squad breaking up the demonstration. Late last month, after a seven-year battle for justice, Asleh's parents and those of another 12 Palestinian demonstrators killed inside Israel at the start of the intifada heard that the policemen responsible for the deaths would almost certainly never stand trial. Israel's attorney-general, Menachem Mazuz, told the families that the investigations were being wound up. In most cases there was a lack of evidence, he claimed, and in the cases where there was evidence the polic

Gather 'round, all you Little Monsters out there! Today marks the 31st birthday of visionary leader and all-around music icon, Lady Gaga . Gaga has helped the world get through a lot , whether through her words in a speech or lyrics to a song. She empowers, uplifts and acts as an inspiration for men and women of any gender, race, color or creed going through troubles in life. Like any artist in the spotlight, we've also witnessed a gleeful Gaga in a relationship (Taylor Kinney, you're an angel) and how her work is affected post-split. ( Fuck you, Taylor Kinney .) Good thing power breakup ballads make for the best kind of jams. To honor Mother Monster on this special day, here are seven of her greatest tracks that'll remind you the first person you need to be worshipping in life is yourself (with Lady Gaga as the second, of course). 1. "Million Reasons" LadyGagaVEVO on YouTube One of Gaga's newest tracks " Million Reasons " could easily be pegged as the song you play while you're curled up in bed, crying profusely with a pint of Ben & Jerry's wedged between your thighs. Despite the emotional rollercoaster it takes you on, the song is actually pretty uplifting. It's obvious that the song is about her struggles during times with Kinney, but it also highlights that "one thing" keeping her grounded. Regardless of any internal conflict you may have in life -- or with someone else -- there's always that something that'll keep you focused and going. You just have to find what that

Turks will go to the polls this Sunday and a lot of the discussion surrounding the referendum has focused on the AK Party and President Erdogan. But is that what the referendum is really about? People walk past by campaign tents for the constitutional referendum in Istanbul, Turkey, April 11, 2017. ( TRT World and Agencies ) On April 16, millions of Turkish citizens will vote on a constitutional reform bill that, if adopted, will lower the age of candidacy for public office, strengthen checks and balances, and replace the country's deeply-flawed parliamentarianism with a presidential system of government. Although much has been said about the proposed amendments and what they mean for Turkey's future, a quick look at the proposal itself would reveal that this is a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, opponents of constitutional reform in Turkey focused their campaign on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself and repeatedly provided false information to the public about the bill. Instead of engaging questions about the Constitution, they resorted to overused cliches about Turkey and its president. An enduring myth about Turkey's constitutional referendum has been that the proposed amendments aimed to give the presidency more power over the Parliament, the judiciary and party politics. The upcoming vote, critics argue, was intended solely to ensure that President Erdogan remain in power until 2029. In truth, the constitutional reform bill gives unprecedented powe

Shahd Abusalama Rights and Accountability 13 July 2015 My late uncle Muhammed Abu Louz and his 2-year-old son. My uncle was killed during the 51-day attack on Gaza in 2014. I can almost hear my dad's voice breaking in tears and echoing in my ears when I called him on 13 August 2014 following the murder of our neighbor Hazem Abu Murad . Hazem grew up next door to our home and was like a son to my Dad and his best companion whenever he sat at the front door of our home. Along with five others, Hazem was killed while trying to diffuse an unexploded 500 kilogram Israeli missile in Beit Lahya . I can still recall the unspeakable shock that my family suffered on the first day of Eid al-Fitr over the loss of my uncle Muhammed Abu Louz who was killed, leaving behind a very young widow with a 2-year old son and 3-year-old daughter. The children were too young to comprehend what was going on around them. They were dressed in new clothes for Eid and constantly asking when their father would be back to give them candies and gifts. I can almost hear my mum's shaky voice on the phone saying whenever I called, "We're okay, thank God. Don't worry." Continuous bombing rumbled in the background, almost every second. Sometimes, right after I heard the terrifying sounds of explosions, the call disconnected. That would drive me mad as dark thoughts about death, destruction and loss filled my mind. I would endlessly try to call back as panic overcame me. Only when I heard their voices again co

ISTANBUL - With 10 days until Turkey's long-discussed local elections on March 30, Turkey's women are asking what the political parties' municipalities are pledging to promote regarding women rights across the country. Assessing the developments in terms of party pledges to promote women, Daily Sabah spoke to women who want to be included in all areas of social life in Turkey. Starting their election campaigns with a pledge to increase the number of female candidates, Turkey's parties disappointed women with their mayoral candidates across the nation. According to female candidate rates in local elections, the AK Party nominated 18 female candidates for the 2014 municipality mayoral races, and 1,800 female candidates were nominated for city council membership. The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) nominated 46 female candidates for the upcoming elections. Harshly criticized by nongovernmental organizations dealing with women, politics and democracy, the CHP was accused of breaking its promise in terms of its female candidacy rates. In February 2012, the CHP approved new legislation to increase its female quota from 25 percent to 33 percent, but the female candidacy rates raised eyebrows when candidates were announced ahead of the upcoming elections. The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) nominated one female municipality mayoral candidate in the eastern city of Hakkari and 25 female district mayoral candidates across the country. As one of the most significant rep

The Central Obrera Boliviana sees no value in the current dialogue between the indigenous-peasant government and the separatist oligarchy. The president is urging the fascist governors to sign a grand national accord in the next four to five days. From the commune , translated from the Spanish from Econoticias Bolivia La Paz, September 18th 2008 - The leadership of the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB) has declared that it does not approve of the negotiations president Evo Morales today opened with the fascist governors and the oligarchy in search of a great national accord. "We do not agree with these negotiations", COB official Mario Lopez said this morning in La Paz, minutes after the formal opening in Cochabamba of talks between Morales and the fascists governors who rule four of the country's nine provinces with an iron hand and extreme violence. "They [the fascists] are going to continue their blackmails (...) The president must meet with the people and not with the representatives of the oligarchic right-wing", added Lopez, representing the leadership of the COB, the united trade union federation which organises all workers in the cities and in the countryside. With this public statement against the negotiations between Morales and the fascist governors, Lopez brought to mind the criticisms and questions raised by the miners and by other radical unions who have rejected the political support the COB leadership yesterday offered to the Morales government. On Wednesday the

Israel has unleashed another round of destruction and suffering on the Gaza Strip, even more ferocious than its 2008-9 invasion. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have yet again been displaced, over 1,817 have been killed and 7,553 injured (mostly civilians), thousands of buildings have been fully or partially destroyed (including numerous mosques, schools, and hospitals directly targeted). Neighborhoods in Shujai'yya and Khuza'a have been leveled and turned into piles of concrete and mangled iron. Witness accounts tell of whole families wiped out, collective assassinations, endless shooting at unarmed civilians, and around 430 children killed. There is no safe place in the Strip -- not even UN schools turned into shelters that house well over 220,000 internally displaced Palestinians. After eight years of siege and blockade, forty-seven years of occupation, and sixty-six years of national dispossession, 1.8 million Gazans have been living in fear and terror for nearly a month now. The strongest army in the region is again bombarding its long-suffering population. The cost to Israel has been mainly military: sixty-four invading soldiers killed and more injured. There have also been three civilian deaths from thousands of homemade Qassam rockets and mortars fired into Israel, many intercepted by the American-funded Iron Dome missile system. Many residents of Israel's southern towns (where state-provided shelters are prevalent) have left to unaffected or safer areas. Consid

Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani The Electronic Intifada 4 February 2009 A Hamas security officer inspects the remains of missiles fired by the Israeli army near the Rafah border between the southern Gaza Strip and Egypt, 26 January 2009. (Hatem Omar/ MaanImages ) CAIRO ( IPS ) - Despite declarations of victory by Israel, the military assault on the Gaza Strip failed to achieve its stated aims, many analysts say. The assault, and even its exceptional brutality, may only have vindicated the notion of resistance among the Arab public. "The steadfastness of the resistance in Gaza in the face of Israeli military power has resuscitated the idea of armed resistance," Gamal Fahmi, political analyst and managing editor of opposition weekly al-Arabi al-Nassiri told IPS . From 27 December to 17 January, Israel pounded targets throughout the Gaza Strip from air, land and sea, in ostensible retaliation for rockets fired at Israel by Palestinian resistance factions, chief among them Hamas. The latter two weeks of the campaign brought a parallel ground offensive that encountered fierce resistance in and around a number of population centers. The campaign only came to a close -- albeit an uncertain one -- following Israel's announcement of a unilateral ceasefire on 17 January. The next day, Palestinian resistance factions also announced a temporary cessation of hostilities, but not before launching several rocket salvoes at targets inside Israel. Over the course of the following week

What Happens When Tribal Women Manage India's Forests? 04 May, 2015 Inter Press Service Women from the Gunduribadi tribal village in the eastern Indian state of Odisha patrol their forests with sticks to prevent illegal logging. Credit: Manipadma Jena/IPS K ama Pradhan, a 35-year-old tribal woman, her eyes intent on the glowing screen of a hand-held GPS device, moves quickly between the trees. Ahead of her, a group of men hastens to clear away the brambles from stone pillars that stand at scattered intervals throughout this dense forest in the Nayagarh district of India's eastern Odisha state. The heavy stone markers, laid down by the British 150 years ago, demarcate the outer perimeter of an area claimed by the Raj as a state-owned forest reserve, ignoring at the time the presence of millions of forest dwellers, who had lived off this land for centuries. Pradhan is a member of the 27-household Gunduribadi tribal village, working with her fellow residents to map the boundaries of this 200-hectare forest that the community claims as their customary land. It will take days of scrambling through hilly terrain with government-issued maps and rudimentary GPS systems to find all the markers and determine the exact extent of the woodland area, but Pradhan is determined. "No one can cheat us of even one meter of our mother, the forest. She has given us life and we have given our lives for her," the indigenous woman tells IPS, her voice shaking with emotion. Unfolding out of sight and

We're starting to see unconfirmed reports that airstrikes against Syria are underway: VIDEO of Jets over #Lebanon crossing to #Syria , sent to me by Lebanese trusted colleague, taken 38 min ago https://t.co/FSZINNvH81 -- Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) April 9, 2018 Multiple accounts say it's the T4 airbase in Homs: Regime sources are reporting that Assad's T4 Airbase in Homs is under attack. Earlier @Joyce_Karam reported jets flying east from the Mediterranean across Jounieh, Lebanon. Identity of the attackers not yet known. #Syria -- Idrees Ahmad (@im_PULSE) April 9, 2018 Reports of airstrikes against T4 airbase in central Syria. Base was one of Russia's primary operations centres during anti-ISIS campaign. Likely to still host some Russian equipment, possibly personnel. -- Neil Hauer (@NeilPHauer) April 9, 2018 After multiple reports from Lebanon of loud war planes crossing the country bound for Syria in the last hours, now subsequent unconfirmed reports of large explosions outside Homs, possibly strikes on air bases. -- Emma Beals (@ejbeals) April 9, 2018 #breaking news : After heavy military jet traffic over Lebanon toward Syria, reports of missile strikes now on T4 base in Homs -- Steven nabil (@thestevennabil) April 9, 2018 UNCONFIRMED REPORTS of air strikes in Homs #Syria https://t.co/MV0WaARDxe -- Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) April 9, 2018 PRIORITY| reports U.S Tomahawk missiles pass over #Lebanon en route to unknown targets in #Syria . https://t.co/UFYXE5mjnJ -- Mikey Kay

Alisa Harris' debut book, Raised Right: How I Untangled My Faith from Politics was one of the most compelling I've read this year. She's a young journalist living in New York City but grew up in Middle America. Her parents were conservative Republican activists whose politics were formed and influenced by a devout faith. Taught by her parents, Alisa spent her childhood and teen years picketing abortion clinics, working Republican phone banks, and debating conservative principles in speech competitions with fellow home-schoolers. She was hard-core, working hard to live out the faith and politics passed on to her by her parents. Then Alisa left home for college, at which time the faith that fueled her conservatism began to expand, opening her eyes to more progressive policies. Not in spite of her religious beliefs but because of them, politics became a lot more complex, and suddenly she found herself moving toward the opposite side of the political spectrum -- but still fully rooted in her family's Christianity. Raised Right explores those tricky issues of family, faith, and politics. I read an advance copy, and was happy to give the book this endorsement: "In Raised Right , Alisa Harris paints a fascinating picture of how the same religious devotion can send succeeding generations to opposite sides of the political battlefield. And while her story may be more common than ever, it's uncommonly told. Alisa's voice is fresh, honest, gracious, and provocative in all the right plac

Moscow has spoken out about the Syrian jetted dropped from the sky by the United States Military and they are none too thrilled, but their anger is the stuff of theatrics. RedState's Streiff gave a thorough overview of the situation and asks the pivotal question On the whole, we can expect this to result in nothing. The deconfliction channel will be quietly reestablished because the Russians have more to lose than the Syrians by not playing. The real question is whether this modifies the behavior of the Russians and Syrians or inspires them to seek retaliation. All the parsing of words over US enforced "deconfliction zones" vs Russian suggested "deescalation zones" are a matter of labeling. During last year's presidential election they were referred to as "No-fly zones" and were quite a hot topic for partisan bickering. Unlike in 2016, none of this is being done for the cameras and now the rubber has been formally introduced to the road. So, what are Russia's motivations and options? Russia's mission in Damascus has little to do with a simmering sectarian divide that is very close to boiling over into a full-scale regional conflict involving nations not proxies but more to do with showcasing its weapons on the global stage and selling their brand of security and stability. In September of 2016, during an Obama State Department brokered " ceasing of hostilities ," Moscow was so threatened by the words of, then Secretary of state, John Kerry that their response to the "agreemen

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking on Thursday to journalists on the Presidential Plane while flying to Jakarta to begin the second leg of his official visits to China and Indonesia, said Turkey did not differentiate between terrorists as good or bad. He said allied and neighboring countries had stood firm in their support for Turkey's fight against terrorism from both the PKK and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), thanking them for their steadfastness. Turkey's counterterrorism measures will continue until terrorism is eliminated, he said. Erdogan also said that there was a multi-stage plan to establish peace in Syria and that wiping out ISIS from the region was the first stage. He also spoke of his visit to China, voicing his belief that bilateral commercial links between the two countries will continue to increase in the future and broaden to include other avenues. Erdogan said Turkey and China are two countries with no political or economic problems and that this had produced an agreement between the two governments to work closer together. He also said Turkey opposed everything China saw as a threat to its territorial integrity. Erdogan said the two governments had agreed to establish a joint Turkish-Chinese university. President Erdogan told journalists that the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) defended terrorist groups in Turkey and across the region. He said Thursday's terrorist attack that killed five was proof of the PKK's viciousness. "S

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com Mass exodus from Aleppo, Syria continues amid reports Russians are using cluster bombs United Nations demands that Turkey admit tens of thousands of Syrian refugees Turkey border 'buffer zone' could result in clash with Syrian army Mass exodus from Aleppo continues amid reports Russians are using cluster bombs Refugee camp in northern Syria on border with Turkey on Monday (AP) Russian warplanes continue to pound civilians, causing tens of thousands more to flee the city. A report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) says that Russian warplanes used cluster bombs in at least 14 attacks across five provinces since January 26. Cluster bombs open in flight and scatter dozens of explosive munitions over wide areas. They are particularly effective in killing large numbers of civilians over a wide area. The United Nations has warned that hundreds of thousands of civilians could starve if, as feared, forces loyal to the Syrian government encircle Aleppo and submit it to a siege, backed by Russian warplanes. It said that a huge new wave of refugees would be forced to flee from a Russian-backed assault. Independent (London) and Fox News and AP United Nations demands that Turkey admit tens of thousands of Syrian refugees Thousands more Syrians continue to flee Syrian army forces and Russian warplanes pounding Aleppo, and are joining the tens of thousands already massed on the border with Turkey. The Red Crescent (the Islamic branch of th

Almost every year on college campuses it happens, the queer jewish student group or the pro-Israel student group hosts a showing of an Israeli movie featuring two gay men, one Palestinian and one Israeli. The movie isn't political, it's about love triumphing over all. The most recent of these movie is Out in the Dark , directed by Michael Mayer, an Israeli based out of Los Angeles who also co-wrote the script with Yael Shafrir. The movie follows a gay Palestinian from the West Bank as he meets and falls in love with a well off Israeli lawyer. And this all sounds wonderful until I remember the poem "We Teach Life, Sir" by Palestinian activist and poet Rafeef Ziadah where she describes how she is told by journalists: "Just give a story, a human story you see this isn't political we just want to tell people about you and your people don't mention that word apartheid and occupation this not political...this is not a political story." Ziadah's words compel us to remember that the personal is political, as long as Palestine is under Israeli occupation there is no apolitical story, Palestinian existence is resistance and resistance is political. In the case of Out in the Dark we are told by Michael Mayer that the film is about personal stories and not intended to be primarily a political story and it is my intention to explore how that cannot be the case because all stories are rooted in the politics and history, in this case the politics and history of Israeli violence and oc

Perhaps the genre of the 'Tablet' PC hasn't been purely defined because it seems like its some sort of Fad or new term people are clinging to make a sale. Motorola announces a new handset with a 3.2-inch display and casts it in the role of a tablet (laughable), the Dell Streak seemed like something in between a handset and a tablet but was nevertheless termed as a tablet, and now this, the Magnum form LACS. Seems like the term is frivolously being used wherever possible. If these devices could be called tablets then Cowon's A3 or O2 would also be called tablets and not PMPs (Personal media Device), or MIDs (Mobile Internet devices). There's affine line between the two, so fine in fact, it's invisible. Comfortable design But we're here to talk about the Magnum and whether or not it deserves to be placed on the mantle of the Tablets, so here's a closer look. But before getting into the nitty-gritty, I'd just like to state that LACS has not designed this device for the ultra tech-savvy or hardcore mobile internet user, but instead, according to the company, for the lower end segment, college kids and so on. Also keep in mind that as of now this product is far from ready as there are a quite a few updates, I was told, which should enhance the devices potential considerably. That remains to be seen so stay tuned to this space for updates. Form Factor The Magnum is currently available in two variants - one with a 4.3-inch touchscreen (480 x 272 pixel resolution) and the other with

This article is part of the Coal Issues portal on SourceWatch, a project of CoalSwarm and the Center for Media and Democracy . See here for help on adding material to CoalSwarm. This article is part of the CoalSwarm coverage of Turkey and coal . Sub-articles: Planned large coal plants in Turkey Alpu power station Emba Hunutlu power station Proposed coal mines in Turkey Afsin-Elbistan lignite mines Opposition to coal in Turkey Existing coal plants in Turkey Existing coal mines in Turkey Turkish government agencies and energy policy EPDK : electricity industry regulator TETAS : supports domestic coal fired plants financially Privatisation of Turkey's power industry Power companies and agencies in Turkey EUAS : state owned power stations Hattat Holding Yildirim Group Coal mining companies and agencies in Turkey TTK : state owned hard coal mines TKI : state owned lignite mines Celikler Holding Turkey's government actively supports coal power expansion and subsidizes new coal-fired power plants, [1] emphasizing increased mining of the country's widespread lignite coalfields as a way of minimizing imports of hard coal and natural gas. [2] Thus Turkey's energy strategy is inconsistent with its climate change strategy. [3] Coal power meets a third of Turkey's increasing electricity demand, and together with burning coal for heat makes up a quarter of Turkey's primary energy consumption. [4] Turkey has only 500 million tonnes proven reserves of anthracite . Mining of this 'hard coal'

Ready to join the resistance? Sign up for Take Action Now and we'll send you three actions every Tuesday. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation's journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation , check out our latest issue . Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. Fight Back! Sign up for Take Action Now and we'll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation's journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation , check out our latest issue . Travel With The Nation Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine? Vladimir Putin's surprise announcement on Monday that Russia would be withdrawing the "main part" of its "military factions from the Syrian Arab Republic" took nearly everyone by surprise. The Russian Ministry of Defense wasted little time in implementing Putin's order; the ministry reported that by Tuesday morning it had already begun withdrawing fighter jets and personnel from Syria's Hmeymim air base. In the immediate aftermath of Putin's anno

Fact-Finding Report On The Alleged Exodus Of Hindus From Kairana 16 June, 2016 Countercurrents.org A team of journalists and activists, deputed by The Milli Gazette, on 14 June 2016 visited the town of Kairana in Western Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district which is in the national news due to the claim by the local BJP member of Parliament Hukum Singh that 346 Hindu families have been forced to flee Kairana town due to threats from the Muslim community. This claim aroused much media and political interest and focused lights on the law-and-order situation in the state of Uttar Pradesh. After Hukum Singh's allegations, National Human Rights Commission issued a notice to the UP government for its report on the alleged exodus, while the UP government itself ordered a probe into the issue. When our team reached Kairana, we got the news from the nearby Kandhla town that a similar list of 163 Hindu families has been released by BJP and its allied right-wing groups spelling out similar allegations. The Kairana list had the names of four dead persons and 68 who left Kairana long ago. It also includes name of 20 families which are still living in Kairana. This indicates that these allegations are part of a well-designed plan to polarise the society ahead of the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly elections next year. The mouthpieces of RSS and different sympathisers of the RSS-BJP contributed heavily in rumour-mongering to create a communal divide on the ground in order to to strengthen the BJ

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In "The Real Halloween" episode of ABC's The Real O'Neals , Kenny (Noah Galvin) tries to celebrate his first "gay" Halloween by, of course, going to a raunchy gay party in Boystown. His mother Eileen (Martha Plimpton) denies him permission for obvious reasons but allows him to host a party at their house with any gay people he can find, thinking he won't find any. From there, he invites gay students from another school to help gay up his party. Saying it's every awful gay stereotype rolled into one is...pretty much the only way I can describe this episode. Parties with guys dressed up as gaudy half-naked female pop stars parading about and throwing shade at each other is apparently the norm. From that, I'm terrified to think about what happens at Boystown on Halloween. And yet, we're still expected to accept this. Kenny dresses up as Beyonce just to get a rise out of his mother after she allows him to be "completely himself" without letting him live in his "gay world." The only way Eileen truly fits in is by "throwing shade" at the party goers for their tackiness. Kenny: Mom, are you okay? Eileen Yes, I'm okay. All good. Kenny: Really? You're not upset about this? Eileen: What? No. Not at all. You make a great Beyonce. If Beyonce had a pale, small, boy's body. Ballerina: Sweet burn. Eileen: You're more like a Shetland Beyonce. [ All gasping ] Eileen: What? What's happening? Kenny: Mom, you're throwing shade, and you are surprisingly good at it. Stuart: Do me. Do me. Eileen:

Kathryn Moody : Investors, Are You Ready for the Next Global Crisis? Manuel Schiffres Mutual Fund Rankings, 2014 Meghan Streit : Pitching In When Caregivers Need Help Janet Bond Brill, Ph.D., R.D.N., F.A.N.D : How to prevent a second (and first) heart attack thru diet The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington : Caprese is a light, fresh salad; the perfect quick and easy accompaniment to any summer meal Mark Steyn : You Want Nazis? Jonathan Tobin : Care about the Jewish state's future? Obama, in interview, reveals even more reasons to worry Alan M. Dershowitz : Confirmed: Needless death and destruction in Gaza Katie Nielsen : As a mother, I'm all I need to be Cameron Huddleston : 18 Retailers That Offer Price Adjustments Nellie S. Huang : The Best Health Mutual Funds to Buy Now Brierly Wright, M.S., R.D. : Try these 'secret-weapon' foods to boost your changes of losing weight The Kosher Gourmet by Jessica Yadegaran : Take some relish in pickled goodies (5 recipes!) Kimberly Lankford : 50 Ways to Cut Your Health Care Costs James K. Glassman : Investors, Are You Ready for the Next Global Crisis? The Kosher Gourmet by Nick Malgieri : Chocolate molten delight with creme anglaise is a simple yet elegant make-ahead dessert PARIS -What happened to Sarah Halimi resembles the plot of a horror film. In the early hours of April 4, the 65-year-old retired doctor and schoolteacher, an Orthodox Jew, was asleep in the modest apartment in northeastern Paris where she lived alone. Shortly

Conservative political commentator Pat Buchanan warned that if President Donald Trump forgets his populist roots, he will "lose the indispensable element of his winning coalition" and break the hearts of his supporters, during an interview Tuesday on "The Laura Ingraham Show." Buchanan, a former senior adviser to former Presidents Nixon, Ford and Reagan, noted that Trump is working with a vast array of ideology among White House advisers. "I think he will lose the indispensable element of his winning coalition. I think he will break their hearts, and he will damage and destroy his potential, his possibility." Ingraham asked Buchanan what would happen if Trump gives in to the moderate, globalist voices and abandoned his "populist roots." Buchanan predicted such a turnaround would be fatal blow to the Trump administration. "I think he will lose the indispensable element of his winning coalition. I think he will break their hearts, and he will damage and destroy his potential, his possibility," Buchanan said. Noting that he was "exhilarated" when the president first announced his bid in 2015, Buchanan said he supported Trump "from the moment he came down the elevator" in New York's Trump Tower. Buchanan believed that Trump could unite the conservatives and the populists in a way that could "win the country" and put the U.S. back on track. If the conservatives and the populists do not see eye-to-eye with one another, however, "that's where you get conflict," Buchanan said. Ingrah

Did anything happen at the Second Vatican Council? That's the debate underlying the burgeoning disputes over the pope's latest moves-the lifting of excommunications on four far-right schismatic Traditionalist bishops. In the post below on the topic , I cited comments by a leading church historian, Father Joseph Komonchak of Catholic University of America. By happenstance-or Providence-Fr. Komonchak has a very good cover story in the current (Feb. 2, 2009) America magazine on the very topic of Joseph Ratzinger's views of the council, and how they connect to the rehabiliation of the schismatics. (That is young Father Ratzinger, a peritus , or expert, at right at the council with the great Dominican Yves Congar, who was once silenced by Rome.) The article, "Novelty in Continuity: Pope Benedict's interpretation of Vatican II," is a very good and insightful read. I think Fr. Komonchak bends over backward to put a positive spin on Benedict's tough remarks toward those who see the council as a reforming event in the life of the church. And I think Benedict is disingenuous as best in trying to coopt for his own "continuity" camp the mantle of "reform." In effect, the pope has to redefine what "reform" means. But then Fr. Komonchak might include me among the "careless commentators" who see Benedict among those advocating a "hermenuetic of continuity." In the context of the current dust-up, however, of great interest is Komonchak's point about who Benedict was really trying to persuade

Sean Hannity and his fellow Trump lickspittles were so busy cheerleading Donald Trump's pledge to meet with North Korea leader Kim Jong-un - and using it as another excuse to hate on Democrats - they couldn't be bothered to face the fact that Trump just gave a big gift to Kim without getting much in return. But Fox contributor Sebastian Gorka declared Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. Hannity teamed up with fake terrorism expert Sebastian Gorka (the Trumper thug and fugitive with ties to the Nazi party and an anti-Semitic website ) and fellow toady and NRATV contributor Dan Bongino. His major national security credentials seem to be questionable claims of being "in the room during some of the most important conversations" while he was a Secret Service agent protecting Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush. College drop-out Hannity's idea of national security means doing whatever will help conservatives politically and/or damage the left. Let's not forget that not long ago , Hannity was talking up military responses to North Korea and complaining about Obama and President Bill Clinton being appeasers. But even by Hannity Hypocrisy standards , the B.S. was glaring. And potentially dangerous. There are real concerns about Trump's meeting with Kim Don't get me wrong. I'm glad Trump has agreed to talk to Kim. But the path ahead is filled with extremely dangerous pitfalls that could easily trip up a guy like Trump. Our Asian allies seem more concerned than jubilant, e.g. The

[This article has been updated since its early March 2011 publication; please see 5th paragraph] Ottawa's South March Highlands at sunset. Photo courtesy Ottawa's Great Forest. Imagine a major Canadian city fortunate enough to have both an old-growth forest and wetlands, rich in biodiversity and rare habitats, covering an area almost three times larger than Vancouver's Stanley Park. Now picture chunks of it bulldozed for subdivisions and a highway. Unthinkable? Welcome to Ottawa's South March Highlands, an estimated 1,100 hectares of ecologically significant land, home to hundreds of species--almost 20 at risk of extinction--and believed to be the site of ancient Aboriginal artifacts. But only 40 percent of it is protected by the city as conservation land--and developers are moving in. "It's one of the most biodiverse areas in Canada," says Ottawa resident and environmentalist Paul Renaud, "and it's 15 minutes from the centre of the nation's capital." Perhaps that's why, in 1981, when developer Campeau Corp. purchased 550 hectares there, it agreed to keep 40 percent as "open space"--a contingency that carried over to subsequent landowners. But this open space isn't exclusively environmentally significant land, as the area's biodiversity wasn't fully understood at the time of the purchase. Meanwhile, developers have capitalized on the agreement's consent to build sports fields, storm management areas and an 18-hole golf course. Several new residential subdivisions in the South

Ali Abunimah 15 January 2013 Screenshot of Twitter avatar deemed existential threat to Israel German rapper Bushido has been accused of calling for the destruction of Israel because he changed his Twitter avatar to an outline map of historic Palestine with the colors of the Palestinian flag and the words "Free Palestine." "This map image does not serve peace, but sows hatred. Bushido must immediately remove this from his Twitter page, otherwise he can no longer serve as an example of successful integration," German Federal Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich demanded in a statement to Bild am Sonntag . In 2011, Bushido won a "Bambi" award as a role model for "integration," although the rapper has previously been the subject of controversy, drawing accusations that he has produced homophobic and misogynist lyrics. "The message of the image is clear: a two-state solution with Israel and a Palestinian state existing in peace is not acceptable," alleged an overwrought article in Suddeutsche Zeitung . "There is no room for a Jewish state." "It is scandalous that a German musician who is so accomplished should question the existence of Israel in this way," Ruprecht Polenz, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the German parliament told the newspaper. Zionist organizations have jumped on the bandwagon. Drawing attention to Bushido's ancestry, the World Jewish Congress issued a statement titled " German rapper wipes Isra

The Gun Collective USA - -(Ammoland.com)- Welcome back to The Legal Brief, the show where we CRUSH the various legal myths and misinformation surrounding various areas of the gun world. I'm your host Adam Kraut and today we are talking about some big news out of the Volunteer State, the Tennessee Hearing Protection Act. Before we get started for those of you wondering I did not win the 76th seat at the NRA annual meeting. Despite our best efforts, we fell 60 votes shy, but it sure wasn't for lack of effort or enthusiasm. In fact, the enthusiasm amongst you was very apparent. The good news, we were able to get about 800 more people to vote this year than last year, bringing the total number of votes at the annual meeting to over 2,000. And don't worry, I haven't given up on my quest to serve you. I'll be relaunching my website adamkraut.com shortly so stay tuned for that to see how you can help. As some of you may have heard, Tennessee's Governor signed a bill into law decriminalizing the manufacture and possession of silencers in the state. And for those of you scratching your head, silencers on a state level were technically illegal in Tennessee. Like a number of states, Tennessee's law provided that it was an affirmative defense to prosecution if a person had complied with the National Firearms Act. An affirmative defense is when the defendant admits guilt or wrongdoing, but introduces facts or explanations to justify his conduct. In other words, if you were charged with vi

Kensington Market, circa 1968. While a city museum for Toronto has been discussed for decades, a highly-anticipated announcement Monday by respected Toronto archivist and philanthropist Diane Blake that Toronto might finally be getting one of its own, came with a twist. Instead of exhibit space, artifacts, collections, and a bricks-and-mortar location, the "Myseum" of Toronto initiative, as it's being dubbed, will engage residents and visitors online and at pop-up events throughout the GTA. As organizers were quick to point out, the emphasis is on the "My" in Myseum. Blake was hinting as recently as last month that a bricks-and-mortar proposal was imminent, perhaps at one of the numerous sites mentioned in the past for a Toronto museum. Stoking speculation was the fact a Museum of Toronto charity had been registered and two staff hired. A bricks-and-mortar location may still be part of Myseum's future. But for now the projects emphasis will be on fact-finding. The three key goals, Blake says, are to: "illuminate Toronto's history, honour its diversity, and help shape the city's future by stimulating discussion on urban issues." Blake says Myseum will offer citizens "new and innovative ways to experience Toronto's cultures, history, archaeology, architecture and natural spaces." It's an entirely new, and as yet untested, concept. Who else is behind the idea? Blake and her financier husband Stephen Smith, who also chairs Historica Canada, are the key movers. They've put up t

A teachers union contract for a public school system in Oakland County, Mich . claims religious non-discrimination , yet gives "special consideration" to applicants of "the non-Christian faith ." Article 2.6 of the Ferndale public schools teachers union contract provides that "There shall be no discrimination by the F.E.A. [Ferndale Education Association] or the Board toward any employee(s) because if race, creed, religion ... except where age, sex or physical requirements constitute a bona fide occupational qualification...." In addition to the plain language of the contract, Michigan statutory and constitutional law both expressly prohibit discrimination based on religious belief, according to EAG News . However, Article 10.3, which covers filling vacant positions, provides that when there are two or more applicants of equal qualifications for the same position, preference should be given to "those of the non-Christian faith." Here's the exact language of that provision: Should there be two (2) or more of these applicants with equal qualifications for the position and one (1) or more of these applicants with equal qualifications is a current employee, the current employee with the greatest seniority shall be assigned. Special consideration shall be given to women and/or minority defined as: Native American, Asian American, Latino, African American and those of the non-Christian faith. However, in all appointments to vacant positions, the Board's decision shall be final. "Th

Bush pushes $15 billion for AIDS fight From Dana Bash CNN Washington Bureau President George W. Bush discusses his HIV/AIDS initiative in the East Room Tuesday, U.S. President George W. Bush called on Congress to pass a $15 billion initiative to fight the spread of AIDS in Africa. CNN's Deanna Morawski reports (April 30) WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush called on Congress Tuesday to pass a $15 billion initiative to fight the spread of AIDS in Africa, amid criticism from conservatives in his own party who are unhappy over some details, such as the emphasis on condom use. "We can turn our eyes away in resignation and despair, or we can take decisive, historic action to turn the tide against this disease and give the hope of life to millions who need our help now," Bush said in a speech in the East Room of the White House. "The United States of America chooses the path of action and the path of hope." The Bush proposal is modeled after a program in Uganda known as the "ABC" approach: abstinence, being faithful in marriage, and condoms, as the order in which people are told to conduct themselves to avoid contracting the deadly disease. Since Uganda implemented the program, the AIDS infection rate has fallen dramatically and, in places in the country, the percentage of pregnant women with HIV has been cut in half, Bush said. "Congress should make the Ugandan approach the model for our prevention efforts under the emergency plan," Bush said. Nearly 30 million people in Africa are

This is Part 4 in a series on the Trump presidency: Updated July 8, 2018 August 4, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) -- The first three posts in this series revealed why social conservatives have had good reasons to be astonished and grateful for many bold pro-life actions by President Trump. However, he has disappointed and not yet adequately honored his promises on religious liberty especially regarding "LGBT ... " issues. Some praiseworthy measures have been enacted, but they have been much less than needed and promised. Still, there can be understandable reasons for Trump not yet having done what he should have on these issues. ( watch video below starting at 2:36.) The now labeled (and always changing) "LBGT ... " issues are among the most manipulated and misreported in society at this time. There is massive false propaganda, being promoted as fact, that is funded by a network of homosexual and other billionaires such as Most Christian pastors have not taught anything on the homosexual/transgender issue for decades. Among other reasons for this failure, they are fearful and intimidated by the threat of being labelled "homophobic" and have fallen for the wildly successful but contrived "gay victim" marketing strategy developed by two Harvard gay activists in 1989. So it is no wonder that secular leaders, including Trump, are poorly informed on the personal dangers and serious negative social outcomes of widespread acceptance of "LBGT ... " thought, behavior and influence on society.

A former Netanyahu aide is the key figure behind an unprecedented government decision to allow an indigenous people from north-eastern India to immigrate to Israel and convert upon arrival. According to an investigation by Haaretz , nearly 1,000 members of the 'Bnei Menashe' community have arrived in Israel over the past two years. "Though little, if any, proof exists of their Jewish lineage", the paper writes, "the Israeli government voted in October 2012 to allow "a large group" to move to Israel, and, a year later, "voted to bring in an even larger group." Such a move required "special government permission" since the Bnei Menashe "don't qualify as Jews under the Law of Return and are, therefore, not eligible for automatic citizenship." The new arrivals joined another 1,500 already in Israel, "who had arrived in trickles over the years." Many of the longer-standing immigrants live in West Bank settlements. According to Haaretz , "this is likely the first and only time the government has allowed and even provided finance for the mass immigration of a large community whose members do not qualify as Jews under the Law of Return, nor do they have proven Jewish ancestry according to the broader definition of 'seed of Israel.'" The organisation behind the effort is Shavei Israel, founded and run by Michael Freund, who served as an aide to Netanyahu during the latter's first term as premier in the 1990s. Shavei Israel's 2013 financial report showed that Freund himself has contrib

OTTAWA, August 29, 2013 ( LifeSiteNews.com ) - Prime Minister Steven Harper broke his silence today, questioning the motives behind Quebec's proposed Charter of Values that would ban religious symbols in public workplaces. "We know that the separatist government in Quebec would love to pick fights with Ottawa, but that's not our business," Harper said at a news conference in Toronto. "Our business is the economy. Our business is job creation for Canadians -- all Canadians including Quebecers, and our job is social inclusion." Last week Quebec Premier Pauline Marois' government announced plans for the controversial legislation that would ban "conspicuous" religious symbols worn by public employees at work. The "Charter of Quebec Values" would forbid employees in courts, law-enforcement, schools, hospitals, and daycares from wearing items such as turbans, hijabs, kippas, and crucifixes. "What divides Quebeckers is not diversity. It is the absence of clear rules so that we can move onward in harmony," said Marois on the weekend to young PQ supporters who met in Quebec City. "To recognize secularism as a Quebec value is to take cognizance of the evolution of a people which, for the past half century, has become increasingly secular and has taken the confessional character out of its institutions," she said. Liberal leader Justin Trudeau announced his concerns about religious freedom in Quebec last week. "I have enormous concerns about the limits that would be imposed on peo

There is simply no avoiding the furor surrounding religious liberty and the sexual revolution. Nathan Deal, the Republican Governor of Georgia, announced today that he will veto a comparatively modest Religious Freedom Restoration Act intended to protect religious liberty in the state. For weeks, Governor Deal has encountered mounting pressure from Big Business and the LGBT lobby to reject the legislation. According to the New York Times , "Hundreds of businesses and sports organizations, including Coca-Cola and the National Football League, had warned Mr. Deal, explicitly or implicitly, that a decision to support the bill could jeopardize economic opportunities in Georgia." Similarly, progressive groups, such as the Human Rights Campaign, voiced staunch opposition to the measure decrying it as "deeply discriminatory" and " anti-LGBT ." Governor Deal announced his plans to veto the bill in a press conference earlier today. Legislators in Georgia have been seeking to extend further religious liberty protections for several years. House Bill 757, the legislation at the center of this controversy, would have safeguarded the rights of faith-based groups in the state of Georgia that were unable to provide " social, educational or charitable services that violate " their religious beliefs. It would have further guaranteed hiring rights for faith-based organizations , allowed clergy to decline to officiate same-sex weddings and protected churches and their affiliated ministries from

The pro-life Susan B. Anthony List will begin a media blitz on Monday pressing red- and purple-state Democrats up for reelection this fall to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The national organization will hold 26 press conferences across Indiana, North Dakota, Missouri, Florida, Alabama, Montana, and West Virginia, recruiting local pro-life leaders to join national speakers in a message to those states' vulnerable Democratic incumbents. "Battleground state voters who elected President Trump by overwhelming margins trust him to nominate only originalist judges who will respect and uphold the Constitution, a key promise fulfilled in Judge Kavanaugh," SBA List president Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement. "Vulnerable senators up for re-election this year have a choice: stand with the President and their constituents and vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh, or cave to pressure from Chuck Schumer and the extreme abortion lobby." Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota are up for reelection this year in red states, and all voted in favor of President Trump's first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch. Abortion has taken center stage in the debate over Judge Kavanaugh's upcoming confirmation hearing, with both pro-life and abortion-rights advocates considering the possibility that he could vote to upend the landmark 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling, which established a constitutional right to the procedure. SBA Li

NYT columnist Roger Cohen justifies Israel's human rights violations by saying,"If I, as a Jew, have lived a privileged life in the diaspora, it is in part because of the pride and strength that the new Jew of Israel forged."He's wrong. The era of Jewish exceptionalism is over. Pro-Israel groups are working to save the Hebrew program at Evanston Township High School, north of Chicago, where enrollment has slipped in recent years to only 34 students. "The message of these Hebrew programs are clear: If you're going to learn Hebrew, you're going to learn to love Israel. No room exists for students to master the language while disagreeing with Israel's policies"-writes Liz Rose, former Hebrew teacher in a Chicago area public school, who lost her job when she attempted to show students the Palestinian side of the story. The Trump campaign's friendliness with the Russians in the 2016 campaign suggests that the administration is "working to advance the interests of a foreign power" and against the "interests of the American people," says David Leonhardt of the Times. Leonhardt leaves out the fact that the Russian collusion has been shown to have involved one foreign power's interests: Israel, at the U.N., in 2016, in defiance of the Obama administration. In a New York Times column suggesting that the dream of liberal Zionism is dead, Michelle Goldberg has the temerity not to quote any Jewish or Israeli leader. Only Mustafa Barghouti, talking about equal rights for Palestinians. Wha

Earlier this week the Michigan House of Representatives passed a bill that would criminalize abortions in pregnancies older than 20 weeks in all cases including incest, rape, and severe birth defects, leaving exception only for the physical health of the mother; make it a crime to coerce a woman into having an abortion (but not, of course, to coerce a woman out of having an abortion, coercion is fine, apparently, if it's going in the right direction); would limit access to abortion to women who are able to find the time, money, and transportation to have their doctor present for the procedure regardless of whether they are having surgery or simply being prescribed abortion-inducing medication; would require doctors who perform abortions to foot hundreds of thousands of dollars more in malpractice insurance costs in order to do so legally; and would require abortion clinics to maintain a surgical outpatient facility regardless of whether they provide surgical abortions, an unnecessary cost and effort that would force most uncomplying clinics to close. It's being called the nations worst anti-abortion bill, which, unfortunately, is quite the claim to fame at the moment. But before the bill passed, Lisa Brown (right) and Barb Byrum (left) were among the members of the House minority party (Democrat) who spoke against it, and, for their responses to the bill, both women have been indefinitely banned by the House Majority Leader from speaking on the floor of the Michigan House of

I started writing this blog post soon after Prime Minster Harper's recent trip to Israel, but got distracted. I am now picking up the thread because of recent events, including Harper's appalling response to the situation in the Crimea in comparing Putin and Hitler, and the announcement of a very large sale of armoured vehicles [read tanks] to Saudi Arabia. Both cast new light on the Israel trip. My initial reaction to that trip, and the stage management that attended it, was simply to marvel at the lengths to which our Prime Minister will go to garner the support of the Jewish community; and to lament the extent to which the tactic is working. I know many Canadian Jews support his conservative government on the basis of his pro-Israel stance alone. No, I am not going to wade into the turbulent waters surrounding the current policies of the Israeli State. Rather, my purpose is to speak to those who support the Harper government because of its full-throated support for those policies to explain why I believe that support is ill-founded. To begin with there is the problem of the Prime Minister's domestic agenda, which is terrible by any rational, let alone humane, standard. He (or his cabinet colleagues) have weakened federal environmental regulation, done nothing meaningful to address climate change, disparaged environmentalists (going so far as to accuse them of eco-terrorism), and muzzled government scientists to keep Canadians uninformed about the environmental impacts of o

Hillary Clinton derided America as a society plagued by anti-black racism on Wednesday during a campaign speech in Springfield, IL. Pushing the racial narratives of Black Lives Matter, she drew moral parallels between the mass murder of five police officers in Dallas with the police killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. Recent events have left people across America asking hard questions about whether we are still a house divided. Despite our best efforts and highest hopes, America's long struggle with race is far from finished. In just the past week, we saw black men killed by police, and five officers killed by a sniper targeting white police. There is too much violence and hate in our country. Clinton then credited economic inequality with driving violence between blacks and police officers. Despite being the richest country on earth, we have too much economic inequality, and that also undermines the foundation of our democracy. Clinton repeated her call for whites to indulge what she described as legitimate grievances felt by blacks towards police officers and American society writ large. We need to listen to the families whose loved ones have been killed in police incidents. Alton Sterling and Philando Castile are just the latest, a long and painful litany of African Americans dying after encounters with police officers. We remember Laquan McDonald, killed in Chicago, a year and a half ago. And Sandra Bland, who grew up in Illinois, who died one year ago today.

"I like Bernie Sanders," my four-year-old niece in Texas said to me last month. "Why isn't he president?" More than six months on from the defeat of Hillary Clinton, it's a question that countless frustrated progressives across the United States continue to ask aloud. Remember that the election of Donald Trump was not the only political earthquake to shake the US establishment last year. A 74-year-old, self-declared socialist and independent senator from the tiny state of Vermont, in a crumpled suit and with a shock of Einsteinian white hair, came close to vanquishing the Clinton machine and winning the Democratic presidential nomination. Sanders began the campaign as the rank outsider, mocked by the former Obama strategist David Axelrod as the candidate with whom Democratic voters might "flirt" and have a "fling" before settling down with Clinton. By the end of the campaign he had won 13 million votes and 23 states, and raised more than $200m. In this dystopian age of Trump, it is remarkable that Sanders is now by far the most popular politician in the US - and this in a country where "socialist" has long been a dirty word. Increasing numbers of Americans seem nevertheless to "feel the Bern". As such, Sanders supporters cannot help but ask the big counterfactual question of our time: would Trump be the president today if he had faced Bernie rather than Hillary in the election? Throughout the campaign, polls showed him crushing Trump in a head-to-head match-up. In a poll on t

Turning Point USA founder and executive director Charlie Kirk had a real zinger for Democrats this morning. It leftist policies worked so well, why are America's poorest, most murderous, and hopeless cities all run by Democrats? -- Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) January 27, 2018 Because Democrats turn a blind eye to the problems their leadership has caused. Somehow it's everyone else's fault. Cause that's how they want them, hands out needing the governments help. Then they take more of our money to keep some, share with friends and lobbyists and give to poor to maintain their hold on them, and their votes. -- [?][?][?]TheStormBegins[?][?][?] (@trumps_all) January 27, 2018 It's a vicious cycle, really. Think about it. Someone votes for a Democrat because he or she thinks the politician will help bring them out of poverty. All the Democrat does is create policies the voter to rely on the government. The person's position in life stays the same or gets worse. The Democrat then campaigns on the same ideas of helping the poor and needy by blaming the system for creating this level of dependence. And the cycle starts over again. Making the same mistake repeatedly expecting a different outcome is s clear sign of insanity! -- Kyle R. McKibben (@americana_1776) January 27, 2018 Meanwhile, every conservative is over here talking about liberals like... That is a question Dems won't answer! -- jumpstartthecountry (@tsivam) January 27, 2018 Because there is no LOGICAL answer that they can

It's Sunday Funday and if this was the only thing you read until next week's edition, you'd think that everyone in the world loves gay people and that we should all just go outside and play. You in? I got big cats, big girls, and other big deal news. AND DOUBLE THE CUTENESS. Lesbian Running for Mayor in NYC Christine Quinn is attempting to become the first openly gay mayor of New York City. What more appropriate time? Quinn is currently the council speaker, and she has raised almost twice as much as her challenger for the 2013 mayoral race. That's $1.32 million for a lesbian running for mayor in New York City. It's a huge deal. The deadline for fundraising was on Monday, and it looks like Quinn will raise close to $6.4 million for primary fundraising - the limit for the race. Unstoppable? Hopefully. San Diego Gay Pride Has A Military Unit 200 active-duty troops and vetarans marched in San Diego's pride parade on Saturday . It's the first time a military contingent has ever been a part of a pride march in the United States. Many service members said they were moved to participate because of the slow, painful, and awkward repeal of DADT. Weddings on Broadway, In Restaurants: Because People Love Gay People in New York City + On July 25, gay people in New York City will have been able to legally marry for a day, and now they can choose to do it in public. At St. James Theatre on Broadway. Ceremonies will be held on the steps of the theater following a performance of "Hair." I kno

"Thankful I live in America! Thankful for servicemen and women who fight so I can be free and say what I feel. Thank God for loving me the way I am. My family friends and my very special dog who gives a reason to keep going. My friends helped me also." -Marti Jone, TX "I am thankful for the advocacy efforts of the Tea Party Patriots organization on our behalf - the unheard American voices. Because of you and your efforts to organize those of us throughout this country who have been ignored for way too long, I believe our country has a chance to once again be the great nation it once was and is meant to be. I am thankful to God for my life, my faith, my family, my friends, my good health, my work and my work family, and last but not least - our wonderful nation, the United States of America. May God Bless the continuing work of the Tea Party Patriots and may God Bless America. Happy Thanksgiving!" -Sharon Rahn, CO "I am thankful to be an American and the freedom we have to worship as we chose! I am thankful for the freedom of speech that we have as well. Both have been challenged under the Obama years, but I think if the Liberal stay out of power, I think President Trump will attempt to bring legislation that will help preserve it. I don't think we can depend on the Republicans to do it without the Trump voters insisting on them getting on the Team. Certainly the Republican Senate with the Rino's are still there and have been a problem. God Bless America" -O.H. Mittelberg, MI

For weeks now, I've seen social media warriors put out the claim that Bernie Sanders has received $23 million in "illegal campaign contributions" from donors. Another common allegation concerns one contribution from a corporation that the FEC questioned. These allegations stem from an FEC inquiry into the Sanders campaign's December, 2015 campaign finance report of small donations. In a 43-page letter , the FEC questioned contributions in excess of the legal limits, one contribution from a LLC, and the total contributions shown for individual small donors. I reviewed the whole report -- all 99,000 pages -- when I first saw the rumors swirling. After looking at it, it seemed to me that there were some fairly egregious errors in the report, but nothing nefarious. At best, it was incompetence and little more than that. The allegation that he received $23 million in "illegal contributions." He did not. Here's what actually happened. ActBlue transmitted their collections on his behalf to the campaign, along with a report on who made the donations. When the Sanders campaign transferred those ActBlue donations to their report, they reported the entire amount transmitted by ActBlue as the aggregate contribution per donor , instead of each small donor's total contribution to the campaign. So, if John Q Public made three $25 contributions via ActBlue to the campaign, his report entry showed the $25 contribution with an aggregate for the cycle of $23 million, instead of the correct amou

Haaretz reporter Anshel Pfeffer, who covers European Jewish communities extensively for his paper, once summarized attitudes toward Israel as follows: "the further east you go, all the way to the Caucasus, Jews become steadily more right-wing, more stridently pro-Israel, and less prepared to countenance any form of concessions or compromise towards Israel's enemies and rivals." Nor is the reason hard to find: In places where anti-Semitism and persecution are lived experiences or fairly recent memories, Jews consider a strong Israel an asset. Pfeffer said Russian and Ukrainian Jews have told him that "When Israel bombs Gaza and kills Palestinians, our neighbors here fear and respect us." But there's a simpler reason why Jews who feel threatened want Israel to be strong: A strong Israel is one that will still be around to welcome them if the day comes when they need someplace to flee. And many European Jews consider this a real possibility. Daniel Ben-Simon, who wrote a book about French Jews' response to anti-Semitism, estimated back in 2012 that "almost one in two French Jews maintains a residence in Israel. It's a sort of insurance policy, just in case the situation in France gets even worse." Today, some of those Jews have started moving: Immigration to Israel hit a 15-year high last year, and French Jews led the pack, with 7,900 immigrants, an all-time peak. Not far behind, however, were Ukraine and Russia (7,000 and 6,000, respectively), where Jews were fleeing political

AS THE deadly disease Ebola spreads throughout West Africa, some in the U.S. have been engaging in fear-mongering and racism. Others are seeing this deadly outbreak as a golden chance to profit off desperation. But what's causing the high death toll is the intersection of Ebola and poverty. A hemorrhagic fever with symptoms that include headache, vomiting and diarrhea, as well as the signature symptoms of internal and external bleeding, Ebola is caused by a virus that is spread through contact with fluids like saliva, urine, blood and semen. There are no known cases of airborne transmission, unlike other deadly diseases like influenza. Because of this, Ebola is actually relatively hard to transmit from human to human, and is less contagious than measles, whooping cough or polio. According to the scare merchants at Fox News, however, "The deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa poses a threat to America." Other choice headlines include, "Here are the 35 countries one flight away from Ebola-affected countries," and "Ebola outbreak: Deadly foreign diseases are 'potential major threat.'" Residents of a quarantined community in Sierra Leone sit in a crowded treatment center (Cyprien Fabre) The Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization, however, both agree that there is almost no chance that an outbreak could occur in the U.S., or in any nation with sufficient medical infrastructure. In fact, in previous outbreaks, infected individuals have returned to their home co

Between their cheers and their standing ovations, I wonder if Conservative stalwarts at their weekend convention in Calgary weren't just a teensy weensy bit anxious about the many awkward issues raised by the Senate expenses scandal. For example, is their leader telling the whole truth and nothing but? And is Stephen Harper really as brilliant as they were sure he was? There is a veritable cornucopia of evidence -- for those who care about such trifles -- on all these matters. Here's a simple quiz: Which one is true: When Mr. Harper said that no one in his office except Nigel Wright knew about the deal with Senator Mike Duffy, or when he now says "a few people" knew? (The number 13 is used by many.) Do you find it credible that his chief of staff, senior aides in his office, the party's chief fundraiser, the party's top lawyer, and several close allies in the Senate may have all hid from the Boss Man the money they were giving Mr. Duffy? Which is true: when the Prime Minister announced he had accepted "with great regret" Mr. Wright's resignation for giving $90,000 to Mr. Duffy, or when he said this week that Mr. Wright had been dismissed for his "deception"? Had someone else fired Mr. Harper's chief of staff and informed him only days ago? Arguably, this is a venerable pattern, going back many years. Examples can and do fill many websites, books and articles. To take only a tiny number of representative cases: Was Mr. Harper telling the truth when he called then Liberal leade

Reuters' rolling average survey of likely voters shows a dramatic surge in support for Donald Trump's proposed temporary ban on Muslim immigrants. Support reached a majority days before the devastating terror attack by a radicalized Muslim on a gay nightclub in Orlando that left 49 dead and 53 wounded (6 critically). As of Tuesday, the support remained at 50 percent, while opposition to the ban continued to fall. In an over 20-point swing since May 31, more likely voters now say they support a temporary ban on Muslim immigrants than oppose it. As of June 14, two days after the tragedy in Orlando, 50 percent of voters agree with Trump's proposal, while 42 percent disagree and 8 percent remain undecided. The result is a significant reversal of public opinion since May 31, when the ban was 14 points under water, 54.5 percent disagreeing and only 40.7 agreeing (4.8 percent "not sure"). That constitutes a 22-point swing, a shift that began June 6, when support for the ban surged 12 points to 52 percent and support dropped 10 to 44 percent. The question now is how will the massacre in Orlando -- carried out by the radical Muslim son of a Taliban-sympathizing Afghan refugee -- impact the poll when its 5-day rolling average does not include pre-attack survey results. Trump's clarification of the limits of his ban in his speech following the attack might also play a role in national opinion on the issue. In his most significant speech of the campaign , Trump responded to the tragedy b

Mama and Daddy have been gone many years now. I miss them every day. They grew up during America's "Great Depression" of the 1930's and were part of what we now call "the Greatest Generation." Daddy was born in 1924 near Birmingham, Ala. Mama was born in 1928 in Greenville, Miss. From the time I could remember, I knew they were "Depression babies" (as Mama called herself). They didn't tell me their stories to nag me or to exalt themselves. They just wanted to teach me valuable lessons that books could never tell. And they wanted me to pass these lessons on to my family in due time. Here are a few things I learned from them: 1. Be frugal. Not cheap. Not a tightwad. There is a huge difference. My parents taught me that money does not grow on trees, because they grew up poor. My father was probably a lot more poor than my mother; he had only one pair of shoes for the whole year (he wore them in the winter) and his mother made his underwear out of a flour sack a time or two. Mama was more of a "city girl" and actually had indoor plumbing. But her mother made ALL of her dresses and playclothes for her, too. (My mother did not have a store-bought dress until she was a teenager.) Daddy's mother became an elementary school teacher at the age of 19, and went to college at night to get her degree so she could continue to be a school teacher. His mother earned the only income for him and his brother and her elderly and sickly parents. (She had divorced her husband at age 19 and was a si

Rudy Giuliani said Monday afternoon he wanted to clarify statements he had made earlier in the day concerning allegations of collusion between President Donald Trump's campaign and Russia, insisting he had said there was no collusion at all. "What I said [Monday] was that there was no collusion and that collusion also is no crime," Giuliani told Fox News' "Outnumbered" program, during a call-in interview. "I've been saying that from the very beginning." Earlier on Monday morning, Trump appeared on the network's "Fox & Friends" broadcast, where he started off the interview talking about the allegations of collusion. "I've been sitting here looking at the federal code trying to find collusion," Giuliani said earlier in the day, after film clips from several other news broadcasts were played in which reporters and pundits were talking about the collusion claims. "Collusion is not a crime," he continued on "Fox & Friends." "Everything that's been released so far shows the president to be absolutely innocent of doing anything wrong." The only crime present concerning the election, he continued during his call-in to "Outnumbered," is about Russian hacking, and it is "ridiculous" to think Trump would be involved in that. Show host Harris Faulkner asked the former New York City mayor about the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower involving his oldest son, former campaign manager Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner, after a Russian lawyer and others had offered potential "dirt" on Clinton.

The story of a transgendered parent in BC who refused to assign their child a gender at birth and received a British Columbia care card with the letter "U" where the sex is usually marked down, is making international headlines. The "U" stands for unspecified or unknown because the parent, Kori Doty, also identifies as non-gender binary and doesn't believe in gendering children. Back on June 30th, Kori Doty put out a press release which stated: "I do not gender my child. It is up to Searyl to decide how they identify, when they are old enough to develop their own gender identity. I am not going to foreclose their choices based on an arbitrary assignment of gender at birth based on an inspection of their genitals," This is pseudoscience and is simply far-left political ideology masquerading as science. The left wants everyone to believe it's just the right who think this is problematic but watch as I show you a clip from the parents' appearance on Good Morning Britain in which Piers Morgan, far from a Conservative, had a severely normal reaction to this strange story. But if you thought this was just some strange story from a strange far-left ideologue in a far-left city like Vancouver then sadly I have to tell you, this is going to become far more common with each and every birth. Recently, Alberta became the first province to introduce legislation aimed at allowing an "X" marked in the birth certificate gender box instead of M or F and in Ontario , gender neutral options ar

By Derrick Perkins | December 1, 2015, 21:27 EDT Printed from: http://newbostonpost.com/2015/12/01/at-harvard-defense-chief-predicts-generational-battle-against-terrorism/ Defense Secretary Ash Carter, left, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr. arrive on Capitol Hill Tuesday, where both testified before the House Armed Services Committee. (AP photo by Andrew Harnik) CAMBRIDGE - Grappling with violent extremism will be a key challenge facing Americans for generations to come, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said at the Harvard Kennedy School Tuesday, hours after telling a congressional committee that more special forces were being deployed in Iraq to fight Islamic State. The special operations troops will fight with the Iraqi military and have the capability to launch unilateral strikes into Syria, Carter said at a hearing of the Armed Services Committee of the House of Representatives. He characterized the increase as a component of the Pentagon's heightened efforts to battle Islamic State forces, calling the terrorist organization by an acronym, ISIL. "We have to defeat ISIL; we will defeat ISIL," Carter said at the Kennedy School. "We are constantly seeking and finding new ways to strike ISIL and also to protect ourselves." The new force's missions include capturing or killing terrorist leaders, rescuing hostages and gathering intelligence, Carter said. A former Harvard University professor, Carter came back to the Kennedy School for a wide-ranging discus

An oil tanker in Prince William Sound. | Photo by rickz L ong overdue by-elections are finally taking places to fill two vacant seats in B.C.'s legislature. For a couple of months, opposition MLAs have been calling on Premier Christy Clark to hurry up and call the interim elections in the ridings of Vancouver-Mount Pleasant and Coquitlam-Burke Mountain, where MLAs had resigned earlier in 2015 to run in the federal election. Early in 2016, Clark finally obliged, setting the two by-election votes for Feb. 2. Melanie Mark is expected to win handily in Mount Pleasant, one of the safest NDP seats in B.C., while a closer race is expected in Burke Mountain, where the Liberals' margin of victory was narrower in the last provincial election. The NDP's Jodie Wickens and B.C. Liberal Joan Isaacs will battle it out in Coquitlam, but it's not a simple two-way race. The Green Party is running legendary punk rocker and long-time social justice activist Joey Keithley, who is widely respected across party lines for his progressive politics. For the NDP, strong showings in both by-elections will help bolster the party base, still shaken by the stunning electoral defeat of 2013. After 15 years of B.C. Liberals in power, there is a strong appetite for political change in B.C., but also lingering doubts that the NDP can be the vehicle to inspire a broad enough coalition to oust the entrenched governing party. Soon after calling the by-elections, Clark surprised many observers by announcing the Pr

This Vortex comes to you from the archdiocese of Los Angeles, where unsurprisingly there is a heretical priest on the loose. I know it's shocking, but it's the truth. And as an aside, consider your reaction to hearing that piece of news. A priest, an alter Christus, preaching against Church teaching, actively opposing divine revelation through the Magisterium of the Church, and we sort of have almost no response. That's how bad it's gotten. This particular priest is in the limelight because the University of Notre Dame, all the way back in South Bend, Indiana, has decided to give this priest its highest honor at next month's commencement ceremonies. Father Gregory Boyle, SJ from here in Los Angeles will be awarded the University's Laetare Medal. Father Boyle has established a relatively well-known operation called Homeboy Industries, where care and counseling is provided for gang members and prisoners and so forth. To the extent that his work has helped men in a good way temporally, good for him. But in his spiritual work, which is what he was sort of ordained for, the priest is a disaster and a heretic. He supports every moral evil in the realm of sexuality one could name. Additionally, he is a supporter of women being ordained to the priesthood. He supports same-sex marriage and even went so far as to publicly say on repeated occasions that Catholic clergy who are opposed to same-sex marriage and support the Church's dogmatic teaching are on the "wrong side of God." And of

Engulfed by the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, Barack Obama is trying to change the subject. On May 26, the president pledged to "keep fighting to pass comprehensive energy and climate legislation," and on June 2, he declared, "The time has come, once and for all, for this nation to fully embrace a clean-energy future." Pivoting from oil spill to climate bill makes sense; a mandatory, declining cap on emissions is America's best chance to wean itself off of fossil fuels--and Obama's best chance to wring some good out of the catastrophe. With the Senate expected to vote today on a call from Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, to march in the wrong direction--a resolution stripping the EPA of the power to regulate greenhouse gases--this will clearly be a battle. But what did the president mean by "keep fighting"? As the campaigners on the front lines of the climate war know, Obama has not yet begun to fight. In the early days of the administration, Al Gore sent the new president a confidential memo explaining why it was essential for the United States to pass a climate bill in 2009, before the U.N. summit in Copenhagen, where the world was supposed to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. If the U.S. delegation arrived empty-handed in Copenhagen, Gore wrote, the world would have no chance to reach a new global deal. American leadership was the crucial and still-missing ingredient. But except for a few days in June 2009 spent whipping the vote for the Waxman-Mar

How To Win The 'War On Christmas' On Campus Washington Examiner Patrice L. Onwuka When college students fell for a fake petition to ban expressions of Christmas on their campus, I shook my head but wasn't surprised. The absurdity of forbidding candy canes or limiting decorations to lighted trees that don't have gifts under them is the ironic result of a decades-long effort for greater inclusivity in academia and society. However, we've passed the point of welcoming all people, ideas and beliefs to the public square and campus common to censor anything that celebrates our uniqueness and differences. Public officials, school systems and college administrators are limiting expressions of Christmas to avoid offending worshippers of other religions or the non-religious. The data on Americans' views and celebration of Christmas, however, don't support such draconian measures. Nearly all Christians in the United States say they celebrate Christmas, and eight out of 10 non-Christians also celebrate the holiday. Atheists, agnostics and those with no particular religious affiliation, as well as Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Muslims and others, celebrate Christmas because most non-Christians view Christmas as a "cultural" event. Young people are no different. Nine out of 10 millennials celebrate Christmas. Slightly more (43 percent) view it as a cultural holiday than a religious one (40 percent). Overwhelmingly, millennials engage in festive activities such as putting up a Christmas tree and

Neither Master Nor Subject: Zionism, Empire, and the Balfour Declaration Neither Master Nor Subject: Zionism, Empire, and the Balfour Declaration It was just a three-sentence letter, written 100 years ago--and many claim it's still shaping the Middle East. But we should be careful about what we read into the Balfour Declaration. Susie Linfield ▪ Fall 2017 Postcard commemorating the Balfour Declaration (National Photo Collection of Israel via Wikimedia Commons) To many Israelis, "It is basically yet another symbol of Albion's perfidy," journalist Anshel Pfeffer explained in Haaretz in 2012. To many Palestinians, it is "the single most destructive political document on the Middle East in the twentieth century," historian Walid Khalidi told a British audience. To Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, it deserves an apology from the British; his foreign minister has deemed it "the crime which they committed against our nation." "It" is the Balfour Declaration, a three-sentence letter written on November 2, 1917, while the First World War still raged. Its author, Arthur James Balfour, was at the time foreign secretary and had previously served as prime minister. Balfour was a deeply committed Christian who was steeped in the Old Testament, a scion of the British aristocracy, and an influential member of the Conservative Party. The letter expressed vague "favour" for an equally vague "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine. Numerous historians have studied the multipl

Now, the little girl goes shooting every other weekend, prompting her father, Joshua McDonald, to insist she knows and understands proper firearm safety. Dad buys 6 y/o daughter gun to defend herself if shooter attacks school - says she's trained to handle a pistol https://t.co/iFoog1Jfbq pic.twitter.com/jLxLJByYuF -- Zora Suleman (@ZoraSuleman) March 22, 2018 A Tilton, New Hampshire, father bought his 6-year-old daughter a pistol to protect herself, particularly in the event of a school shooting. Joshua McDonald, 26, gave his young daughter, Adrianna, her own .22 caliber Ruger for her birthday after she expressed an interest in shooting as a hobby, Metro reports. Now, the little girl goes shooting every other weekend, prompting her father to insist she knows and understands proper firearm safety. McDonald is engaged to Adrianna's mother, Kayla, who also shoots. "Kayla is also an avid shooter and has learned everything she knows in the eight years we have been together," he said. Read More He added: "She's [Kayla] the worrisome one who knows proper firearm practices for our daughter may save her life one day. With school shootings becoming so common these last few years we both want her prepared and ready to defend herself, if at all possible, with a firearm." McDonald said Adrianna started learning how to shoot with a BB gun to get familiar with how to hold and use a firearm. When he felt it was time to get her a real gun, he upgraded her to the Ruger pistol because it has a

A teacher used incredibly prejudiced stereotypes in an assignment asking kids "how comfortable" they were in situations involving certain groups. A teacher in Florida just learned the hard way how the backlash over a candidly racist assignment can ruin a career. The Fox Chapel Middle School employee gave her students an assignment entitled "How Comfortable Am I?" that asked her young pupils whether they were comfortable interacting with students of different ethnic groups, religions, and sexual orientations. Asking them to rate each situation on a scale of 1 through 4, students were asked whether they felt comfortable when "[a] group of young black men are walking toward you on the street," or whether they were content when frequenting a gay bar, or dealing with panhandling homeless men. Other scenarios mentioned overweight or HIV-positive individuals, people with learning disabilities, Muslims , Palestinians, Iranians , fundamental Christians, and even Native Americans. In one question, students were asked to rate how comfortable they are if "the young man sitting next to you on the plane is Arab," while in another they were asked how they would feel if their "new suite mates are Mexican ." Karen Jordan, public information officer for the Hernando County School District, confirmed that the teacher responsible for the assignment had been fired. In a statement, Jordan said that this assignment "[i]n no way ... [meets] the standards of appropriate instructional material. After

[( The following was originally posted on The Mary Sue (Abrams Media Network) and has been republished here with permission.)] About a year ago, I went with friends to see a live reading of Welcome to Night Vale and was shocked by the amount of screaming coming from women in the audience. The Night Vale episode focused heavily on the romantic relationship between two male characters, Cecil and Carlos, and half the audience would absolutely shriek every time anything remotely romantic happened between them. I'd been listening to Night Vale for a while at that point, but I hadn't really thought about it in a sexual context. Seeing it live made it clear that a good portion of the audience was shipping Cecil/Carlos. Once the shock wore off (and I found my earplugs), I was exhilarated. I can get extremely excited about my ships, pacing around and flailing and spitting references like a kid, but I very rarely get to engage in that kind of behaviour in a group. As much as I love fandom, a throng of screaming fangirls is basically my nightmare; I hate high-pitched noises and get anxious in crowds. That night, though, was freaking magical, because those fangirls were screaming about something that I wanted to scream about, too. I left the performance giddy, watching strangers in Glow Cloud tees skip down the street giggling and shouting. It was one of very few times in my life that I really felt like part of a group. But something about the screaming bothered me, too: were these wome

John Lewis, the longtime Georgia congressman who is portrayed as a hero in the new film "Selma" and known as the "conscience of the U.S. Congress," said last night that he won't attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's scheduled speech to Congress in March, according to Medea Benjamin. From the twitter feed of the Code Pink leader: Exciting! @repjohnlewis announced he will join @repblumenauer in refusing to attend #Netanyahu's March 3 speech at Congress #freepalestine At event tonite at @busboysandpoets @RepJohnLewis pledged that he would not attend #Netanyahu speech at Congress!!! #ICC4Israel Lewis spoke about his book at the D.C. restaurant Busboys and Poets last night. Benjamin says she asked Lewis if he would attend the Netanyahu speech. "I have no plans to attend the speech," he said, to applause. Today, Benjamin says, Lewis's office confirmed to Code Pink that he will not attend the speech. We've contacted Lewis's office and will update if we hear more. Blumenauer is Earl Blumenauer of Oregon , said to be the only congressperson on record to say he won't attend the speech. But the Washington Post reports the resistance is now widespread. "High-ranking Democrats are weighing a boycott of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to Congress next month." And the Post identifies two other congresspeople who don't plan to hear Netanyahu: Some House Democrats have decided they won't attend, saying that the event was meant to create an image for Netanyahu b

'I Don't Care About Human Rights,' Says Philippine President As War On Drugs Escalates 1:03 PM 08/07/2016 Ryan Pickrell | China/Asia Pacific Reporter Shortly after promising to maintain his "shoot-to-kill" order against drug traffickers, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has identified around 150 government officials, judges, and law enforcement officers as having connections to the drug trade. Those named on the list were instructed to turn themselves in to the proper authorities within 24 hours in a televised speech at a military camp in Davao Sunday morning. "Or else I will order the entire Armed Forces of the Philippines to hunt for you," said Duterte. "Go out naked to the world and show your foolishness," said Duterte . The president admitted that the accusations may not be true; however, his "mouth has no due process," and it is his "sworn duty" to present this information to the public. Duterte ordered the cancellation of "any and all" firearms licenses for individuals on his list of suspects. With the executive "shoot-to-kill" order still in effect, if those named fail to surrender, they will essentially be "dead men walking." Around 800 people have been killed since Duterte won by a landslide in May. It would seem that he is making good on his campaign promise to kill tens of thousands of criminals . "The campaign of shoot-to-kill will remain until the last day of my term if I'm still alive by then," the 71-year-old president said during a press conference in his

Because I'm tired of being called a racist, I offer the following three scenarios from my childhood and young adulthood. I doubt seriously that Trump-haters will believe them, particularly Wolf Blitzer, Don Lemon, George Stephanopoulos and Joe Scarborough. I've never been called a racist directly. Indirectly I have, because all of the Trump-haters, who pillory the president hourly, are automatically attacking those who support him. Their bile is spewed as much toward Trump's 63 million voters as toward Trump himself. Think about it: 63 million Americans elected this "vile," "deranged," "unprepared," "racist," "mentally challenged" man. Smart people, those Trump-haters. With hateful words, they accuse others of hatred. The presidential election's popular vote was almost evenly split. Consequently, close to half of America's voters last November are charged with racism by sore losers. How self-righteous is that? And Trump-haters think they have the healing message and medicine we need? Anyhow, scenario one. While waiting for the school bus at age 10, I saw them coming. The black kids, I mean. Five days a week, 10 to 12 black children and teenagers walked two miles from the edge of town out to a "separate but equal" shack down the road from our house. The shack was their school. It was absolutely separate, but not equal to the school in town to which I was bused. The town school had indoor bathrooms. The year was 1954. Things were going on then that even a 10-year-old could disc

"Shhhh," he says, "shhhh. Everyone is sleeping." Kate slept that night. In fact, she hibernated for the next nine years. Kate was only eight years old at the time of her rape and subsequent trafficking. Her perpetrator was not a stranger and he did not crawl in through her bedroom window late at night. He was her uncle. He was someone she trusted, who only saw her as a commodity to be used and sold for the sexual pleasure of countless child rapists. He was her trafficker. Kate's story is all too familiar. In most cases children are coerced or forced into sex trafficking by someone they know and likely even trust. Why? Why would strangers, friends, even family members sell children for sex? The answer is money. A trafficker can make anywhere from $500 to $1,000 a night per child. With such "big money" to be made it is not surprising that sex trafficking is the fastest-growing component of organized crime and the third-largest criminal enterprise in the world. "It is estimated that at least 100,000 American children are being exploited through pornography or prostitution every year in the United States." Most of these children are between the ages of 12-14, with both boys and girls affected. How? How are our children being lured and forced into such a heinous crime? The answer is vulnerability. There is a myriad of vulnerability factors: patterns of running away, truancy, homelessness, abuse within the home; but the primary vulnerability for these children is their immatu

The virtue of porn stars, and the desirability of one, became a hot topic in President Trump's legal fights Wednesday. Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor who is now the public face of the Trump legal team, used an appearance in Israel to take shots at Stephanie Clifford, the adult-film actress better known as Stormy Daniels. He seemed to denigrate the attractiveness of Ms. Clifford, who claimed Mr. Trump had an affair with her in 2006-07, by noting to the "Globes" Capital Market conference in Tel Aviv that the tycoon had married three beautiful women. He said first lady Melania Trump does not believe Ms. Clifford's claims of an affair, saying "excuse me, when you look at Stormy Daniels," then making a grimace. "I know Donald Trump and -- what good is three wives -- beautiful women, classy women, women of great substance. Stormy Daniels?" he asked rhetorically, making another grimace before he was interrupted by "Globes" editor-in-chief Naama Sikuler, one of the event's moderators. "On this stage, we respect every woman," she said. Mr. Giuliani didn't back down. You Might Like "Yes, I respect porn stars. Do you respect porn stars?" he replied dismissively. "Or do you think porn stars desecrate women? Do you think porn stars don't respect women?" He then answered his own rhetorical formulation. "I'm sorry I don't respect a porn star the way I respect a career woman or a woman of substance or a woman who ... isn't going to sell her body for sexual exploitation," he s

Allegation Misconduct to CCC : By Former Qld Police Officer Mr Peter Dutton Brisbane, Australia Mar 7, 2017 -- Submission to Crime and Corruption Commission Re : Allegations of previous Misconduct by former Queensland Police Officer : Mr Peter Dutton Misconduct Allegations 1. Courier Mail reporter Dennis Atkins, in a published article on the 3 March 2017 made reference to a previous allegation of misconduct against Mr Peter Dutton. The allegations have never been investigated to corroborate possible misconduct of the former Queensland Police Officer, Mr Peter Dutton. The allegations in question refers to Mr Peter Dutton's conduct while a Qld Police Officer and his reasons for leaving the Queensland Police Force when he did in 1999. http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/immigration-minister-peter-dutton-primed-to-take-over-as-an-unlikely-replacement-for-malcolm-turnbull/news-story/ce8d02ff7168977c4b3cc155672804ce 2. The article published by Dennis Atkins in the Courier Mail on 3 March 2017 states, Peter Dutton has been in national politics since the 2001 John Howard comeback election, when he scored a six-point swing over Labor's "celebrity" MP Cheryl Kernot. It was one of the biggest swings in the country despite the fact both sides got down and dirty. The Labor team made snide suggestions about why Dutton had left the Queensland drug squad - something that has never been heard of since and looks like what it most certainly was, a gratuitous slur. 3. Several other previously pu

Thank you, Kanye West. You have inspired me with your courage. The rapper tweeted out to millions of his fans about his love for President Trump. He declared, "Blacks don't have to be Democrats." Then he quoted Thomas Sowell (a black conservative). Another black rapper quickly agreed. Another rapper threatened his life with retribution from the violent Crips gang. Great job Kanye. You stirred the drink. You made people think. No one owns your vote. It's time to think out of the box. Time to think contrarian. Black Americans should not be voting in lockstep with the Democrat Party. It's time to ask what Democrats have done for black Americans lately? Or ever? Is black America better off now than when Lyndon Johnson ushered in "The Great Society"? Twenty-five trillion dolars spent on welfare and poverty programs, and poverty is in the same place. Maybe worse for black Americans. How about Obama? What did he do for black America? Lots of talk. But was anyone lifted out of poverty? Has the murder rate on the streets of Chicago, Detroit, and Baltimore gotten any better? Actually, those numbers worsened under Obama. Are the public schools working for black children? As Diamond and Silk would say, "Uh uh, no way." But here's the thing. I'm 100 percent Jewish -- both parents, both sets of grandparents. I see Jews making the same mistake as black Americans. Drinking the same Democratic Kool Aid. I'm going to be the Kanye West of the Jews. I'm going to scream it from the highest mount

While I know a lot of libertarians will disagree with this article, I choose to write it anyway. Donald trump is doing something so brave that not many people would be able to fathom. Trump is in a battle that most cannot understand. It is not just a battle of Republicans vs Democrats. There is a war that hangs on the balance between the rising east and falling west. There is a war between truth and deception. Also, he is facing opposition from his own party establishment. I will break down the amount of fortitude this man has to be going head-on against the political establishment, the media, celebrities, and some of the general public. While I will be the first to say I do not agree with Trump on a host of issues such as minimum wage, tariffs, stop and frisk policies, and many more, I'm not saying not to be critical of the Donald. Criticism is a great thing, and this is in no way covering up his faults. I want you to understand the fact that the man is risking personal and business relationships for the sake of defending what he and his base stand for. Imagine... he could've decided not to run for president and continue to make millions of dollars. Instead, he decided to forego that and risk it all, going up against the leftist media. The media which, as disclosed by WikiLeaks recently, has been colluding with the Clintons and the Democratic Party. Members of the media from Vice, CNN, MSNBC, Huffington Post, the New York Times, and much more, are engaging with the Clintons

The media, including some in the Christian media, throw around the word evangelical with little understanding of its proper definition. Most recently, the media has done this in referring to Pope Benedict XVI as the "Evangelical Pope." In an attempt to say he's a missionary-minded Pope, or a proselytizing Pope, they impart a title that would probably make him most uncomfortable. I have a deep respect for Pope Benedict. Respect for his impressive intellect. Respect for his strong stand on moral issues. Respect for his belief in the uniqueness of Jesus Christ for salvation. Respect for his levelheadedness in understanding other religions. The list could go on and on. But to label the Roman Catholic Pontiff as evangelical is an attempt to mix oil and water. About the only thing those two elements have in common is they are both liquids. Evangelical is a word that was invented to define protestant believers who attest to the fact that salvation is only through faith in Jesus Christ alone. The evangelium, or the gospel, is the good news that any sinner can come to Jesus in repentance and faith, believing that His death and resurrection as a substitute for their own deserved punishment. That is the only way that sinners (which includes all of humanity by birth) can be eternally saved. The Roman Catholic Church cannot be called evangelical. For, although they would agree with the good news of the gospel, they would deem it not quite sufficient for salvation. They would say that you

EDMONTON, Alberta, April 20, 2016 ( LifeSiteNews ) -- The Alberta New Democrat government is backing down on a controversial amendment sabotaging a Progressive Conservative motion that was originally crafted to affirm parental rights in choosing how to have their children educated - be it public, private, or home schooling. The move comes in response to an uprising of concerned parents who have been flooding the Ministry of Education and other political leaders with phone calls and emails. Government House Leader Brian Mason exclusively told LifeSiteNews this afternoon that the amendment has been deleted. "We have had further discussions with our members across the floor and have agreed now to withdraw the proposed amendment to Motion 504 as a showing of good faith. We will now proceed with debating the original motion in May and we can support it as it stands," he said. The retreat comes after a bizarre showdown took place in the Alberta Legislature earlier this week between interim PC Party leader Ric McIver and NDP House Speaker Bob Wanner. After McIver introduced his pro-parental rights motion, NDP MLA Robyn Luff immediately proposed an amendment that essentially gutted the motion of its original intent by affirming that choice in education is the government's prerogative, not parents. When Speaker Wanner ruled that the amendment was "in order" -- reading his judgment from what was allegedly a pre-written document -- McIver arose and challenged the judgment, saying he

President Obama said that "Through deeds that match our words, let's give mothers the respect they deserve" with policies like "paid maternity and paternity leave, sick leave, accommodations for workers who are pregnant, good health care, affordable child care, flexibility at work, equal pay, and a decent minimum wage" during Saturday's Weekly Address. Transcript as Follows: "Hello, everybody. In our house, everybody knows that President is only the third-most important job in the family. So this weekend, I'm going to take a little extra time to say thank you to Michelle for the remarkable way she does the most important job: being a mom. And I'm going to give extra thanks to my mother-in-law for the role model she's always been to Michelle and the countless selfless ways in which she's helped Michelle and me raise Malia and Sasha. I am incredibly lucky to have women who help me raise, love, and look after our girls. I hope you'll also take a moment to say thank you to the women in your life who love you in that special way mothers do. Biological moms, adoptive moms, and foster moms; single moms, grandmoms and godmothers; aunts and mentors - whomever you think of when you think of Mother's Day. Or take a moment, like I will, to remember the moms who raised us, whose big hearts sustained us, and whom we miss every day, no matter how old we get. Giving flowers is always a good idea. But I hope that on this Mother's Day, we'll recommit ourselves to doing more than that: Through

50 Years After Hiroshima In one of his last published works, John Rawls outlines his six principles for when democracies can go to war. John Rawls ▪ Summer 1995 Soldiers wait for the Enola Gay to make landfall after the bombing, August 6, 1945 (US Air Force) The fiftieth year since the bombing of Hiroshima is a time to reflect about what one should think of it. Is it really a great wrong, as many now think, and many also thought then, or is it perhaps justified after all? I believe that both the fire-bombing of Japanese cities beginning in the spring of 1945 and the later atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6 were very great wrongs, and rightly seen as such. In order to support this opinion, I set out what I think to be the principles governing the conduct of war--jus in bello--of democratic peoples. These peoples have different ends of war than nondemocratic, especially totalitarian, states, such as Germany and Japan, which sought the domination and exploitation of subjected peoples, and in Germany's case, their enslavement if not extermination. Although I cannot properly justify them here, I begin by setting out six principles and assumptions in support of these judgments. I hope they seem not unreasonable; and certainly they are familiar, as they are closely related to much traditional thought on this subject. The aim of a just war waged by a decent democratic society is a just and lasting peace between peoples, especially with its present enemy. A decent democrat

President Donald Trump is trying to defund Planned Parenthood in his attempt to get a health care bill passed. Trump is forcing a vote on the House Republicans' health care plan, the American Health Care Act . On Thursday night, Trump said the House Republicans had to get this bill through or he would leave the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, in place. "They will sacrifice the health of every woman in this country to pass this disastrous bill," Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood, said in a strongly-worded statement on Friday morning. This plan is super unpopular , even among Republicans, which is why our president is throwing a tantrum trying to make it happen. A risky vote in the House is happening on Friday afternoon. Then it would have to go through the Senate, which is even more uncertain. One part of the Republican plan, led by Paul Ryan, is to defund Planned Parenthood for a year. As it turns out, people aren't very happy about that as it takes away people's access to essential care like cancer screenings and affordable contraceptives. Thousands of more births would take place in that year without Planned Parenthood, the Congressional Budget Office estimated, due to lack of access. That would be very costly to all Americans. A wrench in Paul Ryan's plan is actually a group of Republicans in the House. The House Freedom Caucus said they will not vote for this plan because it's not conservative enough . The Freedom Caucus wanted a plan that

In the wake of the terror attacks that shook France -- and the world -- this week, perhaps one silver lining is the show of unity by French people and the international displays of solidarity seen around the world. The worst terrorist attack on France in decades, which resulted in the deaths of at least 17 people, triggered rallies in New York , Washington D.C., London, Berlin, Madrid, Geneva, Rio de Janeiro, Montreal, and many other cities. Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, was spotted in attendance at a New York unity rally on Saturday. #JeSuisCharlie, meaning "I am Charlie," swiftly went viral on Twitter around the world and became a rallying cry in support of free speech and the victims of the Charlie Hebdo attacks. In France, rallies were held around the nation all week long and over the weekend, with thousands attending and holding pens as a symbol of freedom of speech, as well as "Je suis Charlie" signs, candles, and photos of the victims. Many defiantly held signs proclaiming "Not afraid," in response to the terrorists who perpetrated the attacks. MSNBC Live, 1/10/15, 4:35 PM ET Benjamin Netanyahu appearing at Paris 'unity rally' MSNBC's Ronan Farrow reports on the upcoming "unity rally" in Paris and how the city is coping in the aftermath of the terror attacks as the manhunt for a remaining suspect continues. share tweet email save Embed On Sunday, demonstrators will be joined by powerful world leaders, including U.K. Pri

The Center for Responsive Politics compiles data on the 50 top interest groups giving money to Congress. Near the top of the 2012 list are the usual suspects--finance, insurance, real estate, and Big Oil. Near the bottom are casinos and the building materials industry (along with "Women's Issues.") But guess who's not on the list? Gun rights groups. Not only did such groups not make the list in 2012; they have never made the list. Even if you only look at the 50 interest groups supporting Republicans, the gun rights crowd doesn't make the cut. However, the NRA does make the Center's list of "Heavy Hitters" which tracks the top all-time donors to politics. But it is number 50 on that list--not far below the American Dental Association. Any number of unions, including the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union, rank higher than the NRA on the Heavy Hitters list . Most of the NRA's clout is wielded in the form of outside spending, and it spent over $18 million in this last election cycle--putting it 17 on the list of outside spenders for 2012. Like the Club for Growth, another group that enforces ideological purity, the NRA is a feared player at election time. But Daniel Gross of the Brady Campaign has argued that the NRA's bark is far bigger than its bite and that its 2012 war chest produced few gains: In all, less than 1 percent (actually 0.81 percent) of the (inaptly-named) NRA Political Victory Fund's political spending was spent in support of winning candidates. The NRA spent

SPECIAL EVENTS Click here for Calendar Events (lead article) SWP candidates offer working-class proposals Socialists call for a fighting labor party, independent of capitalist 2-party system Militant photos by Willie Cotton Socialist Workers Party campaigners hit New York streets January 6 to discuss 2008 elections and offer working-class perspective. Left, SWP vice presidential candidate Alyson Kennedy speaks with cab driver Arvar Pimenter while campaigning in Bronx. Right, Ben OShaughnessy, SWP candidate for U.S. Congress in 8th Congressional District, invites worker to attend socialist campaign event. BY SARAH KATZ AND LUIS MADRID NEW YORKCandidates and campaigners for the Socialist Workers Party have been on the streets here, engaged in the discussions among working people on the outcome of the recent Democratic and Republican primaries. They are introducing people to the proposals the SWP candidates are putting forward in the interests of workers and farmers. As the presidential election campaign unfolds, major questions confronting working people are being discussed, said Martin Koppel, SWP candidate for U.S. Congress in New Yorks District 15, speaking at a campaign forum here January 4. Rising food and fuel prices, joblessness, stagnant wages, war, and immigration policythese are issues workers and farmers are concerned about, Koppel said. He and other speakers for the SWP campaign discussed the results of the previous days Iowa presidential caucuses and the prop

Last year's tax cuts generated a lot of over-heated rhetoric. (Think: Tax cuts for the rich!). That has now given way to outright disinformation, with some critics deriding the benefits as mere "crumbs," while others insist that taxes are actually going up for most Americans. But new research from The Heritage Foundation sets the record straight. It shows that typical taxpayers are receiving significant tax cuts this year--and that, over the next 10 years, they can look forward to cashing in on tens of thousands of dollars in increased take-home pay. By one metric, the Detroit area will receive some of the largest tax cuts in America. In former Rep. John Conyers' district, for example, the average taxpayer will see income taxes drop more than 20 percent this year--by about $500. A typical family of four will see its tax bill cut by nearly one-third, saving more than $1,000. In Rep. Mike Bishop's district, the average household will see a $1,400 tax cut and a family of four can expect a 12 percent reduction--about $2,500. Overall, the average Michiganian can expect to pay about $1,000 less in taxes in 2018. But numbers will vary--primarily as a function of earnings and how many kids you may have. Communities that had high tax bills last year will see the biggest cuts. In Rep. David Trott's district, for example, the cuts will average more than $1,600. Lower-income communities, such as Conyers' District 13 will see much larger percentage decreases in their tax bills. Last year'

New Internationalist Editor: Glen Williams The Denial of Minority Rights 'Equal rights for everyone' - we're all in favour of that. But special rights for minorities? We're not so sure. Glen Williams argues that the world's minorities need special rights today to have any hope of equal rights tomorrow. QUESTION: 'When is a minority not a minority?' ANSWER: 'When it's a privileged elite.' LOOK at the front cover of this magazine and you'll see two groups - the Blues and the Reds. Imagine they're two ethnic groups inhabiting the same country. Will the Blues - who are more than 80 per cent of the population - dominate the Reds? Not necessarily, If toe minority Reds have control of the armed forces, the wealth and the political power, they're likely to dominate the Blues. In that case they wouldn't be described as a 'minority', but as the dominant group in the country. If the boot were on the other foot, however, and the Blues had all the power, they'd be seen as the dominant group and the Reds dismissed as a mere 'minority'. The semantics of minority-majority relationships are complex, and we're not taking this excursion any further. For this magazine is not about minorities as such, It's about power, and how it affects the lives of identifiably different groups of people, These groups are mostly numerical minorities which are disadvantaged and deprived in some way. But their small numbers are not the cause of their deprivation. History has seen many instances of a small but agg

On Monday night's The Last Word , host Lawrence O'Donnell devoted his patented Re-write segment to the favored liberal pastime of making Bible literalists look (more) foolish by reading The Bible to them. In this case, the target was Rep. Paul Broun (R-MO), who recently made remarks (apparently from inside a deer-themed kaleidoscope) indicating his belief that evolution, embryology, and The Big Bang are "lies, straight from the pit of Hell." O'Donnell connected Broun to fellow Missourian Todd Akin by dint of Broun's literal interpretation of the Good Book, reading a passage that, like Akin and VP hopeful Paul Ryan , draws some funny (not "ha ha" funny) distinctions about rape: The Bible passage that O'Donnell quotes is real (although he's using a version of the Bible that's not a King James, which, in my church, is tantamount to quoting a Playboy magazine), and it actually gets worse as you read on. Here's the full passage, from the King James Bible : 22 If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel. 23 If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her; 24 Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife: so

Celebrities -- you either have to love them, hate them, or don't care one way or the other. One interesting truth about "celebrity" men and women is that abortions have affected many of them. I could also include cases of men celebrities, because some of them have post-abortion testimonies as well. We'll save that one for part two. I include myself in the mix because I became post-abortive in 1970 and was still hiding my pain in deep denial back then. Yes, even celebrities and civil rights activists like me have had abortions. Thank goodness people are talking more about abortions these days. At Civil Rights for the Unborn we uncover the injustice of abortion. Abortion isn't a civil right; it's a crime against humanity. At Priests for Life we work hard to end abortion. See Silent No More Awareness and Rachel's Vineyard and find out why men and women truly regret our abortions. Also, please read this compelling account about celebrity abortions by Kevin Burke, co-founder of Rachel's Vineyard. Also read Recall Abortion by Priests for Life Executive Director Janet Morana. After reading one or both please ask yourself these questions: 1. Why must a woman choose between health, safety, and security or abortion? 2. How can taking an innocent life save a life? 3. Does the truth really matter? "Have I now become your enemy because I am telling you the truth?" -- Galatians 4:16 NLT Let's pray for America to end abortion and return to God . Dr. Alveda C. King grew up in the civil right

You knew something like this was coming. Mike Pence was asked Wednesday for his reaction to Joy Behar suggesting his Christian faith was a sign of "mental illness." Pence replied, "It's just simply wrong for ABC to have a television program that expresses that kind of religious intolerance. We're better than that." Today, the View addressed the controversy in an awkward segment in which the only person who apologized was Meghan McCain. The segment opened with Whoopi Goldberg playing clips of Pence's comments followed by a clip of Joy Behar's comments about Pence. Goldberg then turned to Behar and asked, "Do you think Christians are mentally ill?" "Well, I mean, that would make me mentally ill since I'm a Christian myself," Behar replied. She continued, "That would make my mother mentally ill, my father, my aunts, my daughter, this girl here, you, you, I mean, of course not. I don't mean to offend people but apparently, I keep doing it." Behar added, "It was a joke. Comedians are in danger these days." Goldberg then defended the View saying it was a show that had good relationships with people of different faiths. "Now, to call us intolerant or to call out ABC, let's get rid of that because ABC we know is tolerant of everyone," she said. "I'm a Christian. I give money to the church, you know I actually help Christians with my pocketbook," Behar interjected. At this point Meghan McCain thanked Behar for acknowledging that people were upset. "I've had a very hard time over the l

President Obama's Attorney General, Eric Holder, is expected to announce his resignation today. Embroiled for years in some of the most divisive scandals we've seen in decades, his resignation is a welcome sign of change in the Attorney General's office. Attorney General Holder has been tasked with the responsibility of getting to the bottom of numerous critical governmental failures, from Fast & Furious to Benghazi to the IRS targeting scandal. Instead of thorough investigations, instead of seeking justice for the American people, Attorney General Holder turned the Justice Department into a political war room. Each investigation can only be described as bogus. Attorney General Holder has served as President Obama's stonewaller-in-chief. That must change. With a new Attorney General comes the need for renewed transparency. The American people deserve a Department of Justice that is just and apolitical - one that will faithfully seek to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the land and expose true governmental corruption. From Day One of this Administration we haven't seen that. Now, with a change at the top, with a new chief law enforcement officer, the American people expect to see that change. We'll be working with Members of Congress, urging President Obama to appoint someone we can all trust, someone willing to make the tough decisions and appoint Special Counsel where they are needed, someone willing to tell the truth to the American people. I won't hold my breath, bu

The Supreme Court will hear a case brought by Texas and 25 other states challenging President Barack Obama's attempt to give legal status and work authorizations to more than four million illegal immigrants. In a brief order today, the Supreme Court directed the government and the states to address whether the Obama administration's program "violates the Take Care Clause of the Constitution." [The case was set to be heard April 18.] The Programs in Question In 2012, the administration created the Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals program, enabling 1.7 million illegal aliens under 30 years old brought to the U.S. as children to apply for work authorization and deferred deportation. A deferred action is relief from deportation or removal proceedings that can be granted by the Department of Homeland Security. Then, in 2014, this program was expanded by, among other things, eliminating the age cap and increasing the term of deferred action and employment authorization from two to three years. The administration also created Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, conferring deferred action on illegal aliens whose children are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents, provided no other factors make deferred action inappropriate. In addition to lawful presence, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans grants deferred action recipients benefits such as work authorizations, driver's licenses, Social Security, and other government benefits, costing an estimated $324 million o

So, it took Hillary Clinton's upset loss to Donald Trump to get the Democrats and their allies in the liberal media to notice : Barack Obama might have just been a good candidate, but he wasn't good for the Democratic Party . In eight years, over 1,000 congressional, gubernatorial, and state legislature slots have been lost to Republicans. They've lost control of Congress; the White House is now Republican, and two-thirds of the governorships are Republican.Plus, a whopping 69/99 state legislatures are controlled by Republicans. It's a total collapse. In fact, former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich aptly noted that his party is now on life support , while The American Interest said that one of the biggest losers for the 2016 cycle was the notion of the so-called emerging Democratic majority . A lot of these red flags for the Democrats were raised in January, but here's the cold hard truth: the Democratic Party is in exile , restricted to their coastal and urban strongholds, which are not enough to win back House seats, Senate seats, and possibly the presidency. That's the doomsday scenario for the Left: Democrats increase their share of the popular vote, but still lose presidential elections because the voter surge occurs in areas that don't matter. In other words, we all know California is going for the Democrats and while they may add 3 to 6 million more to the Democratic popular vote total (just using this figure as an example)--it doesn't translate into more electora

Rating Comments : She is a former MP in the riding of Beauport - Limolou who had a bad voting record on abortion issues. Previous Occupation : administrator, political advisor, sales consultant Birthdate (yyyy.mm.dd): 1962.12.18 Victory margin last election : 7% (2015); 4.2% (2011) Here is Sylvie Boucher's voting record relating to life and family issues: Votes, Surveys and Policy Decision Vote Score Amendment to protect freedom of conscience for doctors, nurses, pharmacists and healthcare institutions to refuse to participate in euthanasia, either directly or indirectly Conservative MP Michael Cooper proposed this amendment to the Liberal government's pro-euthanasia Bill C-14, so as to protect the freedoms of conscience and religion for doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other healthcare workers and institutions to refuse to participate in euthanasia or assisted suicide, either directly by committing the murder, or indirectly by referring the patient to be killed by someone else. Tragically, the common sense amendment was defeated by a vote of 97 Yeas to 222 Nays. Basically, almost all Conservatives voted well, and virtually all Liberals, NDP and Bloc MPs voted to crush freedom of conscience. [May 30, 2016, Vote No. 72] Yes Bill C14 - 3rd reading of Liberal gvmt bill to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide This horrible Bill, introduced on April 14, 2016 by Justin Trudeau's Liberal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, would institute a killing regime in Canada under whi

Cheap shot at the men and women in the Canadian Forces This was nothing more than a cheap shot at the men and women in the Canadian Forces as well as making fun of an extremely serious situation. The worst part of what he said is that to anyone who no longer spends time playing in an elementary school yard at recess, it wasn't even funny. This is not the first time the Liberal leader joked about a serious foreign policy issue. In February, when he was asked if Canada should provide more aid to Ukraine, Trudeau quipped that Russia invaded Ukraine because the Russians were in a bad mood after they lost at hockey at the Winter Olympics. Reactions to Trudeau's whipping it out statement were swift. The Prime Minister's Office issued a statement saying what Trudeau said was disrespectful of members of the Canadian Forces and made light of ISIS that has not only committed atrocities but has made direct threats against Canada. To think of members of Canada's military put themselves in harm's way just to whip things out is disgusting. Trudeau's view of war matches those of his father who spent time during World War II riding a motorcycle around Quebec wearing a Nazi uniform Trudeau's view of war matches those of his father who spent time during World War II riding a motorcycle around Quebec wearing a Nazi uniform to try and convince people the Germans had invaded. At least Pierre had grown up by the time he reached his 40s and invoked the War Measures Act in response to the FLQ in Que

One sure sign that Republican tax cutters are struggling without Ronald Reagan is the fact that they quote him so much. Thus presidential candidate John McCain: "I ask every Republican voter to let my colleagues know that you still believe in the cause Ronald Reagan fought for." And thus Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform: "[Reagan's] economic policies of tax cuts, deregulation, and choice for the American taxpayer are largely responsible for the economic good times we are enjoying today." Illustration by Taylor Jones for the Hoover Digest True enough. But Norquist's encomium also reveals a problem for the GOP. The whole basis for the tax rebellions of the '70s and early '80s was bad times--indeed, astoundingly bad times. In those days, inflation, high taxes, and global uncertainty combined to put the nation in something close to emergency mode. As Reagan said in his first inaugural address, in 1981, "Our objective must be a healthy, vigorous, growing economy." The dramatic tax cuts that he brought about were a remedy for the period's unique malaise. While the supply-siders vilified John Maynard Keynes, in this instance they joined the Keynesians in arguing that fiscal stimulus could jump-start a stalled economy. Today, by contrast, the economy hardly needs jump-starting. Growth is back to its old powerhouse levels; there seems to be nothing but blue sky ahead on the inflation front. And, without the old urgency, the GOP tax cutters have trouble marshaling sufficie

The Democratic Party was the party of Segregation [Jim Crow laws]. The Democratic Party was the party of Strom Thurmond, Lester Maddox, George Wallace, Robert Byrd to mention but a few, and the "Dixiecrats" who fought against integration. First seven Black Americans elected to Congress. They were Republicans. DEMOCRAT POLICIES DESTROYED BLACK FAMILIES The policies put forth by the Democratic Party -- welfare, Food Stamps, government oversight into families have destroyed the Black families in America, making them dependent on government over self-reliance. In 1965 in the black family, the out-of-wedlock birthrate was 25 percent among blacks. In 1991, 68 percent of Black children were born outside of marriage. In 2011, 72% of Black babies were born to unwed mothers. In 2015, 77.3 percent of non-immigrant black births were illegitimate. More than three-quarters of African American births are to unmarried women, nearly double the illegitimacy rate of all other births, according to new federal data. The National Center for Health Statistics said that in 2015, 77.3 percent of non-immigrant Black births were illegitimate. The national non-immigrant average is 42 percent, and it was 30 percent for whites. The Federal Government has taken over the parenting roll in most Black families. Those on welfare, SNAP along with the other Federal benefits are trapped in this dependent situation. Since 1973 19 almost 20 million Black babies have been terminated through abortion. Ruth Bader Gins

WESTMINSTER, United Kingdom - One in four children born last year in the UK had a foreign-born mother, according to the government's Office for National Statistics. The figures bring into focus the huge increase in immigration that began after the last Labour government took office in 1997. That year 13 percent of babies were born to a mother who was herself born overseas, compared to 27 percent in 2014. In addition to allowing large numbers of asylum seekers into the country around half a billion people have the right to settle in the UK as a result of European Union rules on free movement of labor. Any citizen of a European Union country can settle in the UK and claim welfare checks in the same way as the British. The right extends to a number of countries that were members of the Soviet Union, and yet more that were communist allies of the USSR through the Warsaw Pact. Most of them have average family incomes of less than $10k compared to an average UK family income of nearly $40k. The most populace of these countries in Poland and consequently it topped the poll of where the foreign mothers of babies came from. The country accounted for 3 percent of all children born in the UK. Aside from the EU, the largest number of foreign mothers came from the Indian subcontinent. This group made up nearly 6 percent of all mothers in the country last year. Pakistan was the largest contributor with 2.7 percent of all mothers having been born in the country compared with 2 percent from

Kathryn Moody : Investors, Are You Ready for the Next Global Crisis? Manuel Schiffres Mutual Fund Rankings, 2014 Meghan Streit : Pitching In When Caregivers Need Help Janet Bond Brill, Ph.D., R.D.N., F.A.N.D : How to prevent a second (and first) heart attack thru diet The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington : Caprese is a light, fresh salad; the perfect quick and easy accompaniment to any summer meal Mark Steyn : You Want Nazis? Jonathan Tobin : Care about the Jewish state's future? Obama, in interview, reveals even more reasons to worry Alan M. Dershowitz : Confirmed: Needless death and destruction in Gaza Katie Nielsen : As a mother, I'm all I need to be Cameron Huddleston : 18 Retailers That Offer Price Adjustments Nellie S. Huang : The Best Health Mutual Funds to Buy Now Brierly Wright, M.S., R.D. : Try these 'secret-weapon' foods to boost your changes of losing weight The Kosher Gourmet by Jessica Yadegaran : Take some relish in pickled goodies (5 recipes!) Kimberly Lankford : 50 Ways to Cut Your Health Care Costs James K. Glassman : Investors, Are You Ready for the Next Global Crisis? The Kosher Gourmet by Nick Malgieri : Chocolate molten delight with creme anglaise is a simple yet elegant make-ahead dessert President Trump's pick to be the new secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, is not a fan of the Paris climate agreement, the treaty that claims it will slow global warning by reducing the world's carbon dioxide emissions. Politicians from most of the world's nation

Event Name: Minneapolis College of Art and Design 2018 MFA Thesis Exhibition Date: May 11, 2018 Start Time: 06:00 pm End Time: 09:00 pm Event Type: Arts & Entertainment Cost: Free and open to the public Address: MCAD MFA Studios and Gallery 2201 1st Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55404 Gallery entrance on Stevens Avenue side of the building Details: The Minneapolis College of Art and Design is pleased to present the culminating exhibition of graduating Master of Fine Arts candidates. Presenting a variety of disciplines including illustration, furniture design, photography, drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, filmmaking, and graphic design, the exhibition will feature work by 18 artists and designers. This exhibition is the result of a two-year interdisciplinary journey of intensive research and studio practice. Visitors can expect to see work that encourages contemplation and conversation while surprising and delighting in the mastery of materials. The following artists will be participating: Jonathan Aller, drawing and painting Sishir Bommakanti, illustration Rachael Elam Bonebright, illustration Jodie L. Burke, filmmaking Maria Jose Castillo, print, paper, book Zoe Cinel, multimedia installation and filmmaking Sherry Muyuan He, graphic design William Lining Jiang, drawing and painting Xiaojie Liu, illustration Jordan Moen, interdisciplinary Reza Nejati-Namin, drawing and painting Aries Yuanzhou Qian, illustration Binbin Shen, furniture design Alanna Stapleton, illustr

Four sheriff's deputies failed to enter Parkland, Florida school during the shooting, reports claim; the president of the Broward County Sheriff's Deputies Association reacts on 'The Ingraham Angle.' This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," February 23, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. LAURA INGRAHAM, "THE INGRAHAM ANGLE" HOST: Good evening from Washington. I'm Laura Ingraham and this is "The Ingraham Angle". We have big news for you tonight, this Friday night. The Angle is coming up later in the show. You're not going to want to miss. And then Brexit champion, Nigel Farage, is going to tell us, how to keep this populist conservative movement going strong especially amidst all the pushback from the left. But first, breaking revelations tonight, it's amazing, about the Florida school shooting. As gun control advocates are targeting the NRA, we're going to be finding out more about what actually happened on the ground during that Parkland massacre and how maybe some common-sense policing could have made all the difference. Apparently, it wasn't just one deputy on the scene who didn't engaged the shooter. According to a new report, there were four total sheriff deputies on the scene who did not enter the building during the shooting. Police say it's too early to make definitive conclusions, but yesterday, the Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said just one person, it was Scott Peterson, who stayed outside instead of trying to stop th

ATLANTA (AP) -- A Republican candidate in a nationally watched Georgia congressional race says she doesn't support a "livable wage." That was the way Karen Handel explained her opposition to a minimum-wage increase during a debate Tuesday night with Jon Ossoff, a Democratic upstart who has become a face of the opposition movement to President Donald Trump and is aiming for an upset that would rock Washington ahead of the 2018 midterms. Handel, a former Georgia secretary of state, declined Wednesday to walk back her remarks. She said in a statement: "The private sector creates good paying jobs when we have a robust economy with lower taxes and less regulation." During the debate, Handel was repeating the phrasing Ossoff had just used to explain his limited support for mandate wage increases that he said would yield a "livable wage," and her position follows standard Republican orthodoxy on Capitol Hill. But her choice of words -- "I do not support a livable wage" -- could become fodder against her before the June 20 special election in Georgia's 6th Congressional District. And it certainly could become grist as Democrats nationally continue their efforts to frame Trump and Republicans as foes of the working class. Federal minimum wage is $7.25, though 29 states and many cities have higher minimums. Georgia is not among them. There is a national labor movement to increase the federal mark to $15 an hour, and many Democrats in Congress advocate at least a $10.10 hourly wage. Oss

So clearly, Netanyahu's opponents can play at the election diplomacy game--and so it went in Paris after the January attacks there. Push to the front After the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and the Jewish supermarket Hyper Cacher on January 7 and January 9, a massive memorial march took place. It is not surprising that Israeli politicians came to Paris and participated in the march, not just because of the anti-semitic aspect of the later attack, but because of as many as 200,000 French-Israelis are seen as more likely to support right-wing parties. But French president Francois Hollande requested that Netanyahu not attend. According to Haaretz journalist Barak Ravid , Hollande feared that Netanyahu would use the occasion for politicking, as he did before the 2012 election following the deadly attack on a Jewish school in Toulouse. Netanyahu initially complied , but after discovering that both Naftali Bennett and Avigdor Lieberman would be in Paris, he decided to participate after all. In such a moment of crisis for French Jewry, fighting to exclude Netanyahu would have been a big blunder on Hollande's part. Still, the visit that ensued was a strange one, especially considering Netanyahu's reputation as a relatively media-savvy politician. Netanyahu was filmed pushing his way onto the bus to the march, and photographed slyly sliding towards the front row of the leaders' photoshoot--and later that Sunday, at a ceremony in Paris's Grand Synagogue, Hollande left just before Netanyahu

A 57-year-old woman, originally from Ghana, has died after trying to illegally enter into Canada. Her body was found in a Minnesota ditch about 1 km from the town of Emerson, Manitoba . Initial reports say she succumbed to hypothermia. For months now, Conservative Immigration critic Michelle Rempel, a former Manitoban herself, has been calling on the federal government to tell these illegal migrants that crossing the border this way is unsafe. But you don't have to be the immigration critic to have seen this coming. Any normal, thinking person could have guessed a death would happen at our border. It happened on the Mexico-US border after then President Obama mused about amnesty for illegals in 2014. Illegal immigrants flooded across the southern border, trafficked by violent gangs and cartels and were left unprepared for the elements. Hundreds of bodies of dead illegal immigrants were found in just one Texas County in 2014. And just like the US, when our leader passively invited people to illegally enter our country, they listened and did. Remember when Justin Trudeau thought the best, most diplomat response to Trump's travel ban was to be a sub tweeting concern troll towards our closest political and trade ally in the world? Trudeau tweeted "To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada". That was in January. By March, illegal border crossings had increased by 50% and have conti

The Revival of the Working-Class Concept Trump, the Class Struggle, and the (Somewhat Overstated) Specter of Fascism Gary Leupp USA Politics November 29, 2016 Photo by Ted S. Warren/AP The polarization in the country following the Trump electoral victory is not what Karl Marx called the "class struggle." But it reflects an underlying class struggle -- what Marx called the "uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight" -- which is a real thing, surely, in this country and globally. This struggle between capitalists and workers has never been totally eclipsed by struggles over anything else, including those involving "culture wars" and ethnic identity. Forget that tired assumption that Trump can't win without the women's vote, and the African-American vote, and the Latino vote, and the GLBTQ vote . He can win, you fools, if he has the working class ! Notice how this honorable term, always central to Marxist discourse, avoided scrupulously in mainstream media reporting for decades, is suddenly back in vogue? For years the mainstream media virtually ignored the working class, obfuscating its very existence, shunning the very term. The fourth estate along with the education system and politicians in general did this by positing a vast "middle class" between the poor -- an unproblematic category, assumed to always be there (didn't Jesus say so? -- see Mark 14:7) -- and the rich , eternal role-models for the middle people and the personification of America itself due to their hard

Senator Bernie Sanders , who is the perfect mixture of grumpy and inspiring, printed out a giant Trump tweet and brought it to the Senate floor on Wednesday. His deputy communications director Mike Casca tweeted a photo of Sanders and this abnormally large Trump tweet (so much tweeting). Why did he do this? You ask. Fair question. For one, because he DGAF how ridiculous it looks. He cares about the welfare of the American people. More specifically, the Senate is currently debating over repealing Obamacare , which Republicans have obsessively attempted to dismantle for years. Relatedly, Sanders sought to remind folks Donald Trump promised not to repeal Medicare and Medicaid benefits. In 2015, Trump tweeted, I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid. Huckabee copied me. Bernie Sanders is demanding Trump stick to his word. This is why he printed out the tweet from the former reality TV star, who is soon to be America's new president. At a press conference that followed a meeting between Democratic congressional leadership and President Obama, Sanders stated , Right now, before Congress wastes an enormous amount of time, Donald Trump has got to come forward -- maybe through a tweet, one of his tweets -- and say clearly that Donald Trump will veto any legislation that cuts Medicare, that cuts Medicaid or that cuts Social Security. And if he makes that clear to his Republican colleagues, we can save us all

The Honduran father of a little girl pictured crying at the U.S. border with Mexico, which Time magazine and other publications have used to portray the outrage of separating families, and a Facebook campaign raised $18 million regarding, has said that the presented context of the photo is false. The girl was never separated from her mother. Denis Javier Varela Hernandez told DailyMail.com on Friday that his wife, 32-year-old Sandra, took their young daughter, 2-year-old Yanela, to the U.S. border despite his protests. Sandra was deported from the U.S. in 2013 after she entered the U.S. illegally under the Obama administration, and recently left her three other children behind in an attempt to cross again, seeking better economic opportunities. Hernandez said that while his wife and Yanela have been detained at a family residential center in Texas, they are together and doing "fine." "You can imagine how I felt when I saw that photo of my daughter. It broke my heart. It's difficult as a father to see that, but I know now that they are not in danger. They are safer now than when they were making that journey to the border," the father said. Hernandez insisted that despite media portrayals otherwise, his wife and daughter were never separated at the border. The cover itself was also criticized as exploitative. "I see it as an insensitive and exploitative play to sell magazines -- and one that, albeit unintentionally, offers up this personal tragedy to be memed and ridiculed,

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the Democratic President of the U.S from 1933 to 1945. While in office, Roosevelt refused to support the Costigan-Wagner Anti-Lynching Bill that would have punished sheriffs who failed to protect their prisoners from lynch mobs. Even after the lynching of Rubin Stacy in 1935, which drew National attention, Roosevelt refused to budge. Why? He was afraid of the political ramifications to his career. In 1958, it was the Republican party and President Dwight Eisenhower who sent troops to Arkansas to desegregate schools. He also established the Civil Rights Commission and appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren to the Supreme Court which resulted in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision ending school segregation. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was finally passed under Lyndon Johnson, with a Republican majority. LBJ asked Republican Senator Dirksen, the Senate minority leader to assist him in passing the bill, and as a result Dirksen played a pivotal role in the passage of the Act. Prior to his assassination, President Kennedy called the congressional leaders to the White House in 1963 to line up votes for the bill's passage. A Democrat and avid segregationist from Virginia, Howard W. Smith, indicated his intention to keep the bill bottled up indefinitely. When taking office for Kennedy, President Johnson asked for support from his friend and mentor Senator Richard Russell, who refused. A Democrat from Georgia, and the leader of the Southern Democra

I don't believe the dollar has as much to do with the US government as is thought. Bank notes, even in a gold standard, were just what they were, tender in payment of debt. There is over $50 trillion in debt in the US and even if you count what the Fed has put out, less than $3 trillion in money. Most of the debt has something attached to it, like a house, the tax revenues of a country, the solvency of a corporation or household. Otherwise, the note wouldn't be worth the ink used to print it. The Fed promises to pay nothing, so they really can't default. I believe the value of dollars has a lot more to do with the need of banks to acquire them to solve their own debt problems. The current rally in the dollar is more related to the flight of capital from Europe than anything to do with worth. Banks must acquire them to solve their liabilities. Lysander Spooner, in the 1830's, wrote that gold as money was valued in payment of debt. This is what determined the ultimate value of gold as money. Hernando De Soto, the economist, wrote about the system of private property around the world. He noted that it wasn't property unless it was described on paper as property. I believe that is also true with modern money. There can be counterfeits, but the trouble to make them (it could be said that all currency is counterfeit) and the penalties attached are too great for most of the people in the world to fool with the chore. Thus the deed is left to the bankers of the world. One only need l

Somebody really did their homework on this one. Best on the subject to present date. What if 20 Million Illegal Aliens Vacated America? I, Tina Griego, journalist for the Denver Rocky Mountain News wrote a column titled, "Mexican Visitor's Lament." I interviewed Mexican journalist Evangelina Hernandez while visiting Denver last week. Hernandez said, "Illegal aliens pay rent, buy groceries, buy clothes. What happens to your country's economy if 20 million people go away?" Hmmm, I thought, what would happen? So I did my due diligence, buried my nose as a reporter into the FACTS I found below. It's a good question... it deserves an honest answer. Over 80% of Americans demand secured borders and illegal migration stopped. But what would happen if all 20 million or more vacated America? The answers I found may surprise you! In California, if 3.5 million illegal aliens moved back to Mexico, it would leave an extra $10.2 billion to spend on overloaded school systems, bankrupt hospitals and overrun prisons. It would leave highways cleaner, safer and less congested. Everyone could understand one another as English became the dominant language again. In Colorado, 500,000 illegal migrants, plus their 300,000 kids and grandchilds would move back "home," mostly to Mexico. That would save Colorado an estimated $2 billion (other experts say $7 billion) annually in taxes that pay for schooling, medical, social-services and incarceration costs. It means 12,000 gang members would vanish out of

A good place to start, ironically, is with the misplaced Holocaust analogies liberal American Jews have been spouting ever since Trump's election, like ADL director Jonathan Greenblatt's statement last month that anti-Semitic rhetoric in the U.S. has reached levels unseen since 1930s Germany. Jonathan Tobin has explained in detail why such analogies are ludicrous, but two of the reasons why are crucial to understanding Jewish Trump supporters. In Nazi Germany, anti-Semitism was propagated and orchestrated by the government, not by a vocal minority. That obviously isn't the case in America today. But it is the case in another significant part of the globe: the Arab and Muslim world. Throughout the Muslim world, Nazi-style anti-Semitism is both rampant and government-sponsored. State-owned media, state-appointed clerics, and government officials all spew it day after day: Jews-and it's always "Jews," not "Israelis"-are "sons of apes and pigs" (an official spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party); they are "defiling" Islamic holy sites with their "filthy feet" ( Abbas himself); Hitler killed them "so you would all know that they are a nation which spreads destruction all over the world" (an essay i n a PA-funded children's magazine); rabbis are instructing their followers to poison wells ( Abbas again). And that's from Israel's official "peace partner." Avowed enemies like Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas use even more openly genocidal rhetoric. Moreo

Despite optimism from many after President Trump's address, the mainstream media is still expected to fuel divisive rhetoric... I turned on the news the morning after President Trump's first Joint Congressional Speech to see the usual suspects on both sides belting out talking points ranging from glowing support for the president's performance to the "sky is falling" rhetoric we're all well acquainted with by now. Then, something strange happened. I found myself in agreement with CNN's Van Jones, which was probably a first for me. He made the point that whether you love him or hate him, Trump showed he was firmly in command of the presidency by delivering a unifying smash hit of a speech that had something for every American. The fact that this populist speech has garnered some mainstream crossover appeal without being all that much different than others Trump has given makes me wonder if there is at least some effort being made by the mainstream media to get in line with the will of the American people. Even if it is merely an attempt to save face, I welcome it. Jones may make me regret these words with his next "whitelash" comment, but I'll still type them. I'll still give him his due, because even as a Trump voter who is excited about the trail we are blazing, I am likewise critical of him at times. We should all maintain a watchful eye on those making decisions that shape the future we'll leave for our kids. Our nation was founded on skepticism and a refusal to lie down f

You are not signed in as a Premium user; we rely on Premium users to support our news reporting. Sign in or Sign up today! PITTSBURGH ( ChurchMilitant.com ) - The campus of Duquesne, a Catholic university, is becoming a new battleground for campus safe spaces politics, political correctness and religious liberty and expression. In March, the university's homosexualist club, known as Lambda Gay Straight Alliance, proposed that the university's student government association exclude the fast-food chain Chick-fil-A from the campus' Options Food Court. The proposal did not pass, and the chain will be included on campus. Now the pro-LGBT club is complaining. Rachel Coury, Lambda GSA's president, lamented to the university's newspaper: "I've tried very hard within the last semester and a half to promote this safe environment for the LGBTQ community. So I fear that with the Chick-fil-A being in Options that maybe people will feel that safe place is at risk." That is fascism cloaked in free speech. "They're babies," said Sean Parnell, a U.S. Army Ranger and Duquesne alumnus. "That is the dumbest thing that I've ever heard." "Safe spaces don't prepare kids for the real world," he went on. "You know what that is? That is fascism cloaked in free speech." He continued: That is her basically saying that if you don't believe the same thing that I do, you need to leave my campus, leave my university, get out of town or shut down your business. That was not what America was founded on,

STORY HIGHLIGHTS LZ Granderson: "Don't ask, don't tell" affected everyone; people censored themselves Its message was to assume everyone is straight, and not to talk otherwise, he writes Granderson: Straights "tell" through announcements or flower deliveries He says gays and straights should lose inner censors, talk easily about their lives Editor's note: LZ Granderson is a senior writer and columnist for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com and has contributed to ESPN's Sports Center, Outside the Lines and First Take. He is a 2010 nominee and the 2009 winner of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation award for online journalism and a 2010 and 2008 honoree of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for column writing. Grand Rapids, Michigan (CNN) -- A couple of years ago, while interviewing members of the Los Angeles Lakers, I had the pleasure of looking like an idiot on camera. I was asking four of the team's youngest players about what it's like to be rich and famous in L.A., and who was their Hollywood crush. After some joking and bantering between the players, Ronny Turiaf, who now plays for the Knicks, turned the tables and asked me about my Hollywood crush. I hesitated -- not because I wasn't sure of the answer but because I wasn't sure he wanted to hear it. But the more I awkwardly tried to deflect the question, the more persistent Turiaf became. Eventually, I felt as if I had no choice but to answer, and so with the ESPN cameras fixated on my slightly p

It is getting a little hard to understand the extreme criticism directed towards Israel for the events occurring at the border with the Gaza Strip. Starting in March, Hamas, the U.S.-designated terrorist organization that runs the Gaza Strip, has directed its fanatics, and many Gaza civilians, to charge into battle at the border with Israel. Palestinian Arabs, tens of thousands of them, have been sent to 13 points along the Israeli border. These "civilians" are often armed with wire cutters, slingshots, knives, firearms, and/or bombs which they have used against the Israeli troops. The Israelis have responded with tear gas, rubber bullets, and, eventually rightly so, regular bullets. Hamas wins regardless of what happens. Either the individuals who charge at the border are killed by the Israelis, giving Hamas a propaganda victory, or they break through the fence and murder/harm some Jews with their weapons or use their kites to spark fires or cause explosions in Israel. The Hamas leadership calls these demonstrations the "March of Return," admit they aren't meant to be peaceful, and say the ultimate goal of the protests is to liberate "Palestine (i.e., all of Israel and Judea and Samaria)." It has also boasted in the past that the Palestinian people have made death into an industry, and women, the elderly, and children all excel at being "human shields." None of this should be surprising to any observer, since Hamas is a jihadist group whose charter calls for the murder of al

A Secret Service agent who accompanied President Donald Trump during his overseas trip has died, the White House announced. Noel Remagen, 42, was found unresponsive Saturday while on duty, protecting National Security Advisor John Bolton during the President's visit of Scotland. Remagen was rushed to the hospital, where he died Sunday surrounded by family and colleagues, a statement from the White House said. "Our hearts are filled with sadness over the loss of a beloved and devoted Special Agent," the statement read. "We grieve with them and with his Secret Service colleagues, who have lost a friend and a brother." Remagen's body was flown back to the United States on Wednesday, and will be accompanied by Secret Service personnel until the burial. Remagen had worked in the Secret Service, a law enforcement agency tasked with protecting the nation's leaders, for 19 years. Earlier, Remagen served with the U.S. Marine Corps for five years. "Prayers for the Remagen family. We are all forever grateful for the service and sacrifice of the men and women of the United States Secret Service, some of the greatest and bravest people in the country," White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted Wednesday. Prayers for the Remagen family. We are all forever grateful for the service and sacrifice of the men and women of the United States Secret Service, some of the greatest and bravest people in the country. We are so sorry for your loss and are grieving with you. https://t.co/Q

Here are 9 things Award-winning actress Natalie Portman has said about her Jewish faith and the significant place Israel has in her life. Several of these quotes come via Hillel International. 1. On the Jewish Community "The people I grew up with on Long Island are wonderful people. But I have friends who grew up in $5 million homes, they all drive BMWs and the only places they've been to outside the United States are the islands in the Caribbean. Which is fine, it's a choice, and I don't want to be critical of that. But I am. I think it can definitely be a problem, especially since American Jews are the ones who are in a position - politically and financially- to help other Jews around the world who are facing problems that we can't conceive of." 2. On How "Religion is Done" in Israel "When I go to Israel, I always want to go to temple on the High Holy Days even if no one in my family is going with me. I'll fast. One year in Israel, my family went to Jaffa to get pizza on Pesach [Passover] and I would not do that. You know, I get much more Jewish in Israel because I like the way that religion is done there." 3. On the Holocaust "My grandparents didn't talk about those [Holocaust] years much, especially my grandfather. His younger brother, who was 14 at the time, was in hiding from the Nazis and couldn't take it one more day and ran out and was shot in the streets. And his parents were killed at Auschwitz. He was the one I'd always related to in the family. He was sort of qui

The Refugee-Migrant Crisis Of The EU -- Its Deeper Causes And Messages By Saral Sarkar 26 November, 2015 Eco-socialist.blogspot.de T he media are bubbling with the refugee-migrant crisis, the new great crisis of the EU, the significance of which dwarfs that of the Greek economic crisis. It may appear that everything that can be said on this subject has already been said and written. But it is not so. What is missing in the discussions till now is an in-depth understanding of the crisis, without which even highly competent and experienced politicians and administrators would not find a lasting solution to it. I am not going to tell them what they should immediately do in order to gain control of the crisis. But allow me to try to fill up the big gap between describing and really understanding the problem. Some Facts and clarifications: Let us begin by taking cognizance of some facts that usually remain unmentioned in the discussions. I do not however intend to repeat those that my readers can be expected to regularly get through TV and newspapers. Three categories of "Refugees" Let us first differentiate between three categories of "refugees". (1) Let us call those who were suffering political persecution in their native country and are therefore seeking asylum political refugees. (2) Those fleeing because of some kind of war or violent conflict should better be called war refugees. (3) Those who are leaving their native country in search of a better life or a better job in an

Angelina Jolie's drug video: 3 reasons why it isn't a big deal In an old video leaked recently by Angelina Jolie's former drug dealer, Franklin Meyer, we see the actress talking on the phone as she paces around an untidy apartment. When the video was made, Jolie was in her early twenties. Meyer told the media that the video was shot with her permission soon after she had scored from him. Though the video has sparked quite a bit of frenzy in social media, here's why we think that the video doesn't deserve so much attention. A screengrab from youtube 1. It's all in the past: The video was recorded in 1999. Angelina Jolie was 24-years-old then and had starred in films like Girl, Interrupted and The Bone Collector that year. However, it's been fifteen years since then and Angelina Jolie is a completely different person now, at least in public gaze. From someone who used to regularly feed the Hollywood gossip industry with her reckless life, drug problems and difficult relationships, Jolie hardly ever makes a wrong move in public now. She is now known for being the mother of six children, a humanitarian who fights against sexual violence in war zones, a serious filmmaker and a bona fide Hollywood star. One should not hold a drug problem in the past against her, surely. 2. No skeletons to hide: Angelina Jolie has never been the person who tried to cover up a not-so-glorious past. The actress has often spoken at length about her drug-addiction in interviews. In an interview to 60

An estimated 3,700 children in Arkansas were living in state custody--far more than the 1,045 homes available for foster care placement--when voters in the state went to the polls during the 2008 presidential election contest. One of the items on the ballot was an initiative that would ban adoption or foster parenting by "unmarried individuals in cohabiting relationships." The adoption ban initiative was the most recent attempt by conservatives in the state to make it illegal for gays and lesbians to be foster parents or adopt children in need. Certainly, the need was great. Social workers were putting children in temporary shelters, group homes, even juvenile detention centers while hunting for more permanent places. Yet on November 4, 2008, Arkansas voters approved the adoption ban. The initiative, called Initiated Act 1, passed with 57 percent of the vote and came after a prolonged battle by religious organizations and advocacy groups on both sides of the issue. Leaders in the fight supporting Act 1 came from conservative religious and political organizations with strong grassroots capacities and a history of working together on "culture war" issues in Arkansas. In 2004, conservatives had been successful in a ballot initiative campaign to ban same-sex marriage. For years, they had been working through state policies and legislation to ban adoption and foster parenting by same-sex couples. Although some of their previous efforts had failed, Act 1 was a success. Opponents of

P resident Obama keeps saying that Ali Khamenei , the "supreme leader" of Iran, has issued a fatwa that prohibits Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. I have two questions. 1. If the supreme leader has forbidden a nuclear weapon, what are we talking about, in these negotiations? 2. Trustworthy experts say that Khamenei has done no such thing -- that he has never issued an anti-nuclear fatwa. For example, see the Middle East Media Research Institute, here . Why doesn't a reporter ask Obama about this? The question of the fatwa -- its very existence -- should not be a left-right matter. It should not be up for opinion, or affected by bias. We're talking about a factual matter. Either Khamenei issued a fatwa or he didn't. And if he didn't, shouldn't our president stop saying that he did? Shouldn't the American people be clear-eyed about Iran, rather than deceived, or falsely comforted? ‐Yesterday, Israel marked its Holocaust memorial day. The country's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said, "As the Nazis strived to trample civilization and replace it with a 'master race' while destroying the Jewish people, so Iran is striving to take over the region and expand further with a declared goal of destroying the Jewish state." He went on to say, "Instead of demanding that Iran significantly dismantle its nuclear capabilities, and conditioning the lifting of sanctions on an end to Iranian aggressions, the world powers are retreating, leaving Iran with nuclear capabilities and

A former self-described "satanic drag queen," who has accepted Jesus and found love in the church, will receive an award for courage at the first Ex-Gay Awareness dinner and reception that will be held later this month in Washington, D.C. On Sept. 30, Voice of the Voiceless, a nonprofit organization that aims to defend the rights of former homosexuals, and individuals with unwanted same-sex attraction and their families, will present Trace McNutt with its first-ever courage award for former homosexuals . During an interview with The Christian Post on Tuesday, McNutt described in detail the extremes he went to to find acceptance among his peers, his family and later, the gay community. Free sign up cp newsletter! Speaking candidly, McNutt described getting hit by bricks and two-by-fours as a child. In one particular altercation, he said that boys had urinated on the clothes he was wearing. The bullying, made worse by his parents' disapproval, drove him to seclude himself. "I was obsessed with groups like KISS and Marilyn Manson," he recalled. Eventually, McNutt discovered that he had same-sex attraction and entered the gay community. But the cruelty didn't stop there, he said. "If you're not perfect, if you don't have 8 percent body fat and look like Justin Timberlake, you're completely shunned in the gay community." He continued, "The royalty and the rockstars in the gay community are the drag queens." So in order to get accepted, McNutt decided to enlist in their ranks, crea

Sepideh Nasiri is an award-winning entrepreneur, former VP at Women 2.0, fierce feminist advocate, and founder and CEO of Persian Women in Tech , a new nonprofit dedicated to supporting Iranian women in the tech and STEM fields. Once a month, a group of career-established Persian women in tech/STEM who reside in one of the organization's event cities come together to connect, mentor, support, and empower each other. Each event showcases unique speakers covering entrepreneurship and technology. Per the organization's website, "Our technology landscape would not exist without the achievements and contributions of incredible tech women pioneers throughout history--and the communities and teachers who support them. When women support, assist, and encourage each other's achievements, incredible things happen, and new ground is broken." For this week's Feministing Five, I had the pleasure of catching up with Sepideh Nasiri about the importance of creating women's spaces in male-dominated fields, her own journey as an advocate for gender equality, and more! Catch this inspiring feminist on Twitter @SepidehN . Senti Sojwal: Can you tell us about your organization, Persian Women in Tech, and how you came to create it? Sepideh Nasiri: Persian Women in Tech is a nonprofit organization dedicated to celebrating and supporting Iranian women in STEM fields across the globe. We are engineers, technologists, founders, intraprenuers, entrepreneurs, and investors. We know that the technology i

ABOUT five million Americans buy medication internationally each year because of high costs in the United States. These drugs are considered foreign unapproved drugs by the Food and Drug Administration, and federal law makes it illegal to buy them. Generally, though, purchases go through without a hitch. Only rarely do customs agents seize an order. For almost 15 years big drug companies have vigorously lobbied Congress and the federal government to stop Americans from buying foreign medicines. As part of that lobbying, they have made it seem as if all medications purchased from Canada and other international sources are the same as those that come from websites that sell counterfeit drugs. Even the F.D.A. has made that suggestion. In testimony in February before a House subcommittee hearing to explore the public health threat of counterfeit drugs, Howard R. Sklamberg, a deputy commissioner at the F.D.A., said that foreign unapproved drugs posed the same health risks as counterfeit drugs. That assertion is just not true and will scare lawmakers and consumers into believing that all imported drugs bought online are dangerous. The unapproved drugs are often the exact same ones sold here. Or theyre different brands, or generic versions of domestically sold drugs. Thus, many foreign unapproved drugs specifically those ordered from licensed pharmacies are almost always going to be safe and effective, like their United States counterparts, whereas a counterfeit drug will almost a

Who's Rand Paul going to shout at now? Photo: KENA BETANCUR For an event that involves way too many people standing on stage and talking about public policy, the GOP debates have been unusually exciting. Tonight, Fox Business Network and The Wall Street Journal unveiled the lineup for the debate they're hosting on November 10, and there was another interesting development. Chris Christie did not qualify for the main debate at 8 p.m., as expected , and Mike Huckabee failed to make the cut as well. Instead, they'll appear in the 6 p.m. undercard debate along with Rick Santorum and Bobby Jindal. Lindsey Graham and George Pataki are out completely, as is Jim Gilmore (he didn't make it into the last two debates, so that's no surprise). To qualify for the main debate, candidates had to average 2.5 percent in four recent national polls, and the cutoff for the JV debate was one percent. The hosts used the most recent polls by "major, nationally recognized organizations that use standard methodological techniques," but what that means is subjective. Earlier in the week, several sites predicted that Jindal wouldn't qualify for either debate, assuming a CBS /New York Times poll would be included. Instead, the hosts went with a more obscure Investor's Business Daily poll. They also used a poll from NBC / Wall Street Journal that did not include the names of any of the candidates from the undercard debates, so they were only included if a respondent mentioned their name. Chris Chris

Chuck Schumer has been trying to work out a bipartisan agreement on universal background checks for gun purchases with Tom Coburn, but negotiations between the senators have stalled over whether private sellers should be required to keep receipts of gun sales. Dealers already have to keep such documents, but Coburn insists there " absolutely will not be record keeping on legitimate, law-abiding gun owners in this country." "They've tried to mix the dealer records with the background checks and create the bogeyman of a national registry," James Pasco, the executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, tells Politico . "To somehow suggest that that is a step toward a registry is at variance with common sense." Now the NRA is challenging common sense even more explicitly in a new ad that claims Schumer accidentally revealed his secret plot to take Americans' guns in a live TV interview. The commercial shows Schumer stating during a January 30 hearing that creating a federal gun registry "is already illegal and it will be repeated as illegal in our law. Then in a TV interview on February 13, the senator refers to a proposal "that I have been pushing, which is universal registration." The music swells and the commercial's narrator declares, "So when gun owners hear 'universal background checks,' we know it means 'universal registration.'" Schumer's spokesman, Max Young, tells the Daily News that the senator has consistently opposed creating a gun registry, and the term "

Nancy must be so proud. She raised an annoying elitist liberal just like herself. (Huff Po) -- My kinship with Wisconsin workers is based on my history as a proud pro-union Democrat. But you need not share my history to share my stake in their efforts to protect collective bargaining and the working conditions unions have gained for nonunion workers across America: If you want a voice on the job, you're a Wisconsin worker. If you want your employer to pay you the benefits you earned, you're a Wisconsin worker. If you enjoy your weekends, you're a Wisconsin worker. If you value workplace safety, health care benefits, and unemployment insurance, you're a Wisconsin worker. If you're an elected official counting on your pension, you're a Wisconsin worker. If you're a non-union employee in a right to work state, you're a Wisconsin worker. If you're unemployed or underemployed, you're a Wisconsin worker. If you want a decent day's pay for an honest day's work, you are a Wisconsin worker. If you believe in workplace negotiation not subjugation, you're a Wisconsin worker. And even if you're an anti-union media pundits with an American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) union card and protections, you're a Wisconsin worker. That's the way solidarity works: an injury to anyone is an injury to all. For all our sakes, the Wisconsin protests must succeed in their goal: workplace negotiation not subjugation. Reminder: These are the key points in Gov. Walker's proposal: Publ

The masterful satirist Richard Pryor, during a skit on his television variety show, in 1977, played a black president holding a press conference. Subdued in tone, clad in a gray suit, Pryor as chief executive tries to field all the questions without losing his composure. He answers the journalists' queries about tensions in the Middle East, the neutron bomb, and the unemployment rate. Then, about four minutes along, a reporter wearing the beret and fatigue jacket of the Black Panthers and identifying himself as Brother Bell, of Ebony magazine, stands up to say, "I want to know what you gonna do about having more black brothers as quarterbacks in the National Football Honky League. Right on!" Pryor responds, his voice gradually rising: "I plan not only to have lots of black quarterbacks, but we gonna have black coaches and black owners of teams. As long as there gonna be football, gonna be some black in it somewhere!" By now, he is jabbing the air with his hand and widening his eyes. "I'm tired of this mess that's been goin' down," he shouts. "Ever since the Rams got rid of James Harris, that's what my job been about." The raucous applause that ensues from the studio audience attests to Pryor's laser aim. As an astute commentator on the American dilemma of race, he understood thirty-six years ago something that the nation as a whole is still grasping: the plight of black quarterbacks, so often denied the starting positions they deserved, has always been about much more than fo

If you blinked, you might have missed some significant news in the middle of Rudy Giuliani's demand for Robert Mueller to end his special-counsel probe of Donald Trump. "We've got Kim Jong-un impressed enough to be releasing three prisoners today," Giuliani told Fox & Friends this morning, "and I've got to go there, and Jay Sekulow, and the [unintelligible], we've got to go there and prepare him for this silly deposition?" It appears that Giuliani confirmed in a tangent to his argument that North Korea will hand over three American hostages, after rumors of a release floated out yesterday: In an appearance on Fox and Friends, Giuliani seems to confirm that the U.S. captives will be released from North Korea Thursday pic.twitter.com/96eoEKfUre -- Kate Riga (@Kate_Riga24) May 3, 2018 Was this another case of Giuliani being indiscreet, or a planned strategy? Donald Trump all but said the same thing on Twitter last night: As everybody is aware, the past Administration has long been asking for three hostages to be released from a North Korean Labor camp, but to no avail. Stay tuned! -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2018 Trump's trolling a bit here, but it would be a major diplomatic coup to get the three men released in return for nothing, at least publicly. Only one of them had been seized prior to Trump's election, but the North Korean regime's practice of hostaging has long been a major issue. ( Ask the Malaysians , for instance.) CNN picked up on Rudy's aside , pro

( Image by Photo by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff | CC BY 2.0) Permission Details DMCA - Advertisement - Here's a shocker: Donald Trump and his Palestine-Israel fixers think they can buy a peaceful and permanent settlement of the 70-year conflict by getting Arab governments to pressure the Palestinians into forgetting the "politicians' talking points" -- you know, superficial things like independence from the routine abuses and indignities of colonial oppression (that's right; the same trifles Americans celebrated on July 4) -- and focusing instead on what really matters: roads, jobs, and money. In Trumpworld, everyone and everything -- including the longing for justice -- has a price. According to many indications and chief envoy/Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner's own interview with the Palestinian newspaper Al Quds , the Trump plan is to have Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt gang up on the Palestinians in order to compel them to accept money for economic development in return for dropping their demands for a sovereign and independent state free of Israeli domination, that is, a state consisting of (most of) the West Bank and Gaza Strip with its capital in East Jerusalem. Instead of insisting that Israel withdraw from the lands conquered in and occupied since the 1967 war, dismantle its illegal settlements, and tear down its wall (which runs not along the 1967 border but through the West Bank), the Palestinians are expected to accept promises

As music softly plays on the stereo, I gently place my hands on her feet as we begin our weekly Healing Touch session. For the next 45 minutes, I visualize divine blessings flowing into her, as I practice the ancient form of healing known as laying-on-of-hands. I end our session by anointing the woman's head with frankincense and saying a blessing. Afterwards she slowly opens her eyes. "There's nowhere else in my life where I can experience this kind of deep relaxation and peace," she says. "Thank you--I feel like myself again." Once again, I am amazed by the sense of quiet grace that blesses these Healing Touch sessions in our church. My participation in this ministry is the fruit of many years of interest in healing, particularly in the growing research on the mind/body connection and the ways in which spirituality can be a powerful adjunct to conventional medical treatments. So when our church began sponsoring a series of workshops given by the Colorado-based Healing Touch Spiritual Ministry program in 2003, I was eager to learn more. In our classes I heard about the ancient healing traditions of Christianity. Healing the sick was a central part of Jesus' ministry and of the early Christian church. The gospels are full of stories about Jesus healing the sick, and Jesus commanded his followers to go and do likewise. But this emphasis was gradually lost over the centuries as illness became solely the domain of physicians and hospitals. Healing Touch is a modern version of

As a social conservative, I've learned to be encouraged by the NDP victory here in Alberta. Well, not by the victory itself, although there are a few things we can hope and pray might come out of it. Premier Rachel Notley's roots are in Alberta politics; her father, Grant Notley, was NDP leader when the PC dynasty began in 1971, and I assume she knows that Albertans won't take kindly to any really left-wing initiatives. Hopefully she will govern cautiously and not push the standard NDP agenda too hard; hopefully, she will look at the history of the NDP in Saskatchewan, which was beginning to review its anti-corporate policies, though not in time to rescue itself from the avalanche of support for the Saskatchewan Party. Besides, no matter what happens, in the midst of the sinking sense of inevitability as the numbers rolled in on election night, there was something incorruptibly satisfying about seeing the likes of Stephen Mandel and Thomas Lukaszuk lose their seats. But, no, the NDP themselves aren't what I'm hopeful about. The reason their victory has filled me with hope is because it proves that we should never give up on a lost cause in this province - especially a lost cause with a social vision attached to it. And social conservatism, it must be said, looks like a lost cause in Alberta these days. This may come a surprise to non-Albertans, though maybe not as surprising as an NDP majority government. But the issue here is social conservatism: Belief in traditional marr

Pope Francis had been put under pressure in order to punish the large quantities of bishops who had covered up many pedophile priests when the U.N. Human Rights panel indicted the Vatican of preserving their reputations instead of the safety of the children. Reports had stated that an estimated 10,667 children had been victims of horrific sexual abuse lasting at least two years per child. These were only the reported cases which means the true number of children sexually abused may be much higher. The panel has called on the Vatican to get rid of all the priests who have been known or suspected of sexually abuse. They are to be opening the archives on the abusers and the bishops who have been covering up for the abusers. They must then turn them over to the law enforcement authorities in order to start investigations and prosecutions. Many can agree that this should have been done a long time ago and in fact, the Vatican has claimed that they have taken the steps before this has all come up. The committee ignored the Vatican claims of already trying to safe guard the children and indicted the church of the continuation of harboring the pedophile criminals. It is obvious that the Holy See has not been acknowledging the degree of the crimes committed considering the amounts of sexual abuse cases arising. They claim to have been taking measures but they have not addressed the cases to their full extent to protect the children and have still adopted protocol and guidelines in whi

Early last year, in the heat of the US Republican Presidential primaries, Donald Trump was asked whether he thought American women should be punished for having an abortion. Since a historic Supreme Court judgement in 1973 (Roe v. Wade), American women have not been criminalised for having abortions. Many states in the US operate highly restrictive abortion policies to prevent access, but abortion itself is not a criminal act. So when Trump answered by saying "there has to be some form of punishment", his comments rightly caused a political firestorm. Even anti-abortion campaign groups and fellow Republicans rushed to join the chorus of people condemning his remarks. In Britain, even the Daily Mail 's outspoken columnist Katie Hopkins disagreed with him. "I absolutely reject", she said, "The views of those who think abortion should be illegal or someone should be prosecuted for helping a woman take control of her life." In a rare move, Trump was forced to backtrack. But it may surprise many of Trump's British critics to discover that in England and Wales, abortion remains a criminal offence, with limited exceptions under the 1967 Abortion Act. Under a 150-year-old criminal law, women and doctors could be sentenced to life imprisonment - if, for example, a woman obtains pills bought online to procure a miscarriage. This is the harshest criminal penalty in Europe. Under the Abortion Act 1967, as since amended, women can have access to an abortion up to 24 weeks' gestation pro

Mainstream media only ever addresses Israeli racism indirectly, if at all. An issue that has received less than its fair share of media coverage is the document prepared by European embassies in Israel asserting the "importance of regarding Israel's treatment of its Arab population as a substantive issue, and not one that is secondary to the Palestine-Israel Conflict." According to the Palestinian leadership inside Israel, the document includes formal proposals against the racist draft laws frequently discussed in the Israeli parliament which discriminate against Palestinians. The Israeli government considered that as the document raised sensitive issues, it constituted an interference in its internal affairs. It also seriously criticized certain European ambassadors in Tel Aviv for preparing the document. Of course, the Palestinian leadership in Israel welcomed it. MK Hanin Zoubi attributed the document to the work and role played by the Palestinian leadership in Israel in meeting with foreign ambassadors, political attaches and international governments, informing them about the persecution and racism experienced by Palestinians in Israel. Dr Thabet Abu Ras, director of the Israeli human rights organization, the Adala Center, asserted a similar sentiment describing the document as "the fruit of the ongoing work of human rights organizations, political parties and Arab leaders in presenting and addressing the issues of Palestinian society inside Israel, to the internation

BALTIMORE, MD, March 6, 2015 ( LifeSiteNews.com ) -- Critics of Catholic Relief Services say the international humanitarian agency apparently neglected to carefully read the latest claims that it promoted contraception and abortifacients for children in Kenya before issuing blanket denials. The Population Research Institute and the Lepanto Institute continue to call for a full-scale reform of the U.S. bishops' aid organization. "CRS's response uses straw-man tactics, misdirection, and outright lies in order to cast doubt on the PRI and Lepanto Institute report," Michael Hichborn, president of the Lepanto Institute, told LifeSiteNews. The two groups also have 600 pages of CRS self-reported documents in their possession, obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and shared with LifeSiteNews, that they insist substantiate the claims they made in their report and irrefutably prove that the relief agency is being dishonest. The report, issued March 3 , says CRS took government grant money from the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to implement an AIDS prevention program for Kenyan children with two components, Healthy Choices 1 (HC1) and Healthy Choices 2 (HC2), both of which promoted contraceptives and abortifacients in violation of Catholic teaching. The report also says CRS cooperated in altering PEPFAR documents once its involvement in the program had become known and was brought to the agency's attention. In addition to the FOIA documents, evidence

Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel (center) speaks with President Donald Trump during the G7 summit in Quebec, Canada on June 9. (From left, front row: White House National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow, British Prime Minister Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron, Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and White House national security adviser John Bolton.) | Jesco Denzel/German Federal Government via AP There was a great deal of doubt that the G7 was going to be able to issue a joint communique after the somewhat contentious and disharmonious meeting that just concluded. But somehow they managed it. JUST IN: Trudeau says all G7 leaders signed joint statement despite rising tensions with Trump https://t.co/NzlolAHca2 pic.twitter.com/JNZtxJSvIk -- The Hill (@thehill) June 9, 2018 Via The Hill : Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Saturday that all members of the Group of Seven (G-7) had signed on to a joint statement, ending speculation that the United States could be excluded from such a communique. "I'm happy to announce that we've released a joint communique by all seven countries," Trudeau said in closing remarks at the G-7 summit in Charlevoix, Canada. ... Speaking at a news conference on Saturday morning, Trump demanded that G-7 countries drastically reduce trade barriers for the U.S. or risk losing access to the world's largest economy. The series of snubs and demands from Trump -- alongside other long-simmering disagreements with key U.S.

Kim Severson and Robbie Brown reported on a chaotic Tuesday in Atlanta for Wednesday's New York Times , as teachers and administrators indicted for altering student test scores to inflate achievement levels either reported or failed to report to jail -- " Divisions Form In Atlanta As Bail Is Set In School Case ." The Times willingly passed on the race card played by defenders of the accused, most of whom are black. Confusion, anger and charges of racism played out at the Fulton County Jail here on Tuesday as the process of booking 35 educators in the nation's largest school-cheating scandal began. The sharpest focus was on Beverly L. Hall, the former school superintendent who rose through the education ranks in Newark and New York City and who was named superintendent of the year during her 12 years with the Atlanta district. A grand jury on Friday charged Dr. Hall and the other educators with essentially running a conspiracy in which standardized test scores were secretly raised as a way to get bonuses and ensure job security. The Times previously defended Hall , and even attacked National Public Radio for questioning her initial false vindication. A photo caption over a collage of photos of some of the indicted teachers, most or all of whom were black, suggested racism was a factor: "Some members of the news media used a board to help them identify the teachers as they arrived at the jail. Critics said racism was playing a role in how the cases were being prosecuted ." Ther

Look, we live in strange times. It seems that every time I turn around I hear of another science fiction magazine being in trouble, and yet, wouldn't you know it, the Puffington Host has decided to publish some and picked Barbra Streisand to write it. It's not very good, of course. No one really expects this "celebrity-written fiction" to be wonderful. Normally the done thing is to pair the "name in another field" and an experienced writer, like what is happening with Clinton and Patterson. But Barbra has decided to go it on her own and the result.... Well, it's funny. We just don't think it's entirely intentionally funny. Also, we won't lie: some of the funny had us crying a little, because, well... you know... Props for her beginning, which establishes clearly that we are in a parallel world with the following: May our country learn a lesson from this tragic mistake of 2016. Yeah, right on, sister. If Clinton had won the presidency, I too would hope the country would learn to stop electing extreme leftists with no other claim to power than an appeal to a vaguely defined victimhood group. I mean, if we had first blacks, then women, we'd eventually around 2040 be reduced to electing the only black, lesbian, one-legged, deaf dyslexic woman in the country. We are approaching the year anniversary of Donald Trump's Electoral College victory over Hillary Clinton. By Electoral College victory, you mean of course "election victory." You see, here, in that non-parallel world,

TORONTO, Oct. 15, 2012 ( LifeSiteNews.com ) - As thousands of Canadians call on Dalton McGuinty's Education Minister to resign after she said that Ontario's anti-bullying law prohibits Catholic schools from teaching that abortion is wrong, a Catholic school trustee in Toronto has demanded she retract the remarks and issue an apology. "The government does not have the right to demand through bullying that the Catholic Church and its schools change its moral doctrine to fit their wishes," said John Del Grande, who represents Ward 7 (including parts of North York and Scarborough), in a statement Monday. On Wednesday, Minister Laurel Broten told media that Catholic teaching on abortion is "misogyny" and therefore violates the government's newly-enacted "anti-bullying" legislation. "We do not allow and we're very clear with the passage of Bill 13 that Catholic teachings cannot be taught in our schools that violates human rights and which brings a lack of acceptance to participation in schools," she said, at a press conference called in response to another press conference organized by Campaign Life Coalition with the support of three Tory MPPs. The bombshell prompted a quick rebuke from Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto, who heads the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario. CLICK 'LIKE' IF YOU ARE PRO-LIFE! Calling the remarks "totalitarian" and a declaration of war on Catholic education, Campaign Life Coalition launched a petition campaign , which has since yielded over 3,900 s

Just over a week ago, Israeli armed forces dragged a French diplomat out of an aid vehicle in the occupied West Bank. The international news agency Reuters released subsequent photographs of the woman, Marion Fesneau-Castaing, lying in the dust at the feet of Israeli soldiers, a gun pointed at her face. Fesneau-Castaing and others had been attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to the villagers of Khirbet al-Makhul, whose homes had been demolished by the Israeli army four days earlier, on 16 September. The BBC responded with an online story headlined: "Diplomats protest over West Bank clash with Israel troops" As is the norm with the BBC's coverage of Palestine and Israel, the story was written without context or background. Israel's presence in the West Bank, its military occupation, is illegal under international law. Its demolition of Palestinian houses and the displacement of their inhabitants are in violation of the Geneva Convention. In a feature on the demolition of Khirbet al-Makhul, the Independent quotes Bill Van Esveld of Human Rights Watch as saying, "All the criteria appear to be met for this to be considered forcible transfer, which is a war crime." None of this was reported by the BBC, whose headline reduced all of the above to "a clash with Israel troops". In the BBC's use of the word "clash" there is an implication that the diplomats were also at fault, that they waged some kind of battle against armed soldiers. Khirbet al-Makhul is in the fertile Jordan Vall

WASHINGTON -- A survivor of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, believes it's time for Christians to exchange "church Christianity" for "lifestyle Christianity," and that the mainstream media narrative about "conversion therapy" amounts to "fake news." At the Freedom March, a gathering of men and women who shared their stories of abandoning the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer lifestyles and identity labels, which occurred at the Sylvan Theatre next to the Washington Monument Saturday, Luis Javier Ruiz, who survived the June 2016 massacre at the Pulse nightclub, began his speech by kneeling and proclaiming forgiveness. "I come as a pastor's child to ask forgiveness of the Church. Because we have kicked out, we have thrown [LGBTQ persons] out, including myself, and I want to ask [for] forgiveness, and I want to welcome the LGBTQ, I want to welcome anybody to come into the Church, to come worship in a safe place." "Maybe we didn't know how to do it back in the days, but we sure do now. The Holy Spirit is pouring out. And He is raising up a generation with boldness. And I just want to thank Him ... my identity is Jesus." Ruiz no longer lives or identifies as a homosexual. He explained that he lost many friends at the Pulse nightclub that night in Orlando, and described the massacre as one of the scariest events of his life. Ruiz stressed that those who hold hateful signs and express hate for homosexuals are "not us." Expand | Collapse (Photo: The Chri

In Keene, Clinton repeats calls for more gun control By DAN TUOHY New Hampshire Union Leader October 16. 2015 9:43PM U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a campaign town hall meeting in Keene, N.H., on Oct. 16, 2015. (BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS) KEENE -- Hillary Clinton didn't mention Bernie Sanders by name, but her event here Friday was set up to bolster her claim that he isn't tough enough on guns. The Democratic presidential rivals had their first go-round on this issue during the debate earlier this week. Asked by the moderator if she thought Sanders was tough enough, Clinton responded, "No, not at all." Sanders, who maintains he is more than tough enough and would reach across the aisle to achieve meaningful reform, plans to unveil a gun control proposal soon. Clinton began her town hall-style meeting at Keene State College by repeating her calls for gun sale restrictions. She was introduced by Clai Lasher-Sommers, an advocate who, as a 13-year-old living in nearby Westmoreland, was shot in the back by her stepfather. The gunshot victim said that all these years later she still has shrapnel fragments in her back, and every time there's a major shooting incident, she said, "I feel it like a flashback with every shooting in New Hampshire and across this country." Clinton hugged Lasher-Sommers, and said she was a face to a serious challenge facing the country. Clinton's proposal includes universal background checks and repealing any immunity on gun ma

The United States has entered a new Gilded Age. And, according to the leftist Economic Policy Institute (EPI), income inequality is so bad that we might return to the days when the Vanderbilts were building the Breakers and the Biltmore while shoeless children swept chimneys and toiled on the slag heap . "There has been vast and widespread growth in income inequality in every corner of the country," EPI reported. "Overall, the growth in incomes of the bottom 99 percent has improved since our last report, in step with a strengthening economy, but the gap between the top 1 percent and everyone else still grew in the majority of states we examine here." Funny thing is, most of the "gilded few" in the top one percent live in blue states that cast their electoral votes for Hillary Clinton. The Details Among EPI's "key findings" are that in 2015, after seven years of a Barack Hussein Obama presidency that touted "change," the "top 1 percent of families in the U.S. earned, on average, 26.3 times as much income as the bottom 99 percent -- an increase from 2013, when they earned 25.3 times as much." As well, EPI reported, "eight states plus the District of Columbia had gaps wider than the national gap. In the most unequal -- New York, Florida, and Connecticut -- the top 1 percent earned average incomes more than 35 times those of the bottom 99 percent." Two of those three, New York and Connecticut, are blue states that went for Obama twice and for Clinton in 2016 . So did D.C. Other f

STORY HIGHLIGHTS Liberian women are tackling discrimination and a legacy of abuse with the help of U.N. Women The country is suffering the fallout of a long civil war, bad economy and low Quick, local justice and education is changing the face of Liberia But problems remain including accused rapists being freed because of a lack of resources Monrovia, Liberia (CNN) -- Two powerful women standing side-by-side in Liberia's capital place their faith for a better future in the country's women. Both overcame formidable cultural barriers; both were jailed by previous rulers, but neither was deterred. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the first female elected president in Africa, and former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, the first female elected to the top office in her country, were sharing center stage during events in Liberia to mark the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day. Liberian women are tackling discrimination and a legacy of abuse with the help of U.N. Women -- the organization now headed by Bachelet that is dedicated to gender equality and empowering women. "All over the world women have a lot of difficulties," Bachelet said, "but in Africa we are dealing with women who have been a victim of war through rape and sexual violence. Secondly, in Africa are a lot of post-conflict countries and we need to support their efforts to promote peace." Aware of how fragile that peace is, Sirleaf's first remarks to a crowd of about 3,000 on International Women's Day were about th

I am an outspoken Zionist, Jewish Republican, and Trump-supporter, and as such, I have a number of conservative friends. Given that I live in a trendy neighborhood in a large metropolitan area, I have many liberal Jewish friends as well. Many of my conservative friends have approached me over the years and asked me why more Jews aren't Republicans. Given my unique personal and political situation, I will do my best in this piece to answer this question. The question is especially acute at times like the present, when Israel is under attack, not only by Hamas, but by the international community and media. The Trump administration, on the other hand, has been steadfast in its support for Israel - it followed through on its promises to exit Obama's Great Appeasement to Iran and move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, has not obsessed over Israel building apartments in suburbs of Jerusalem (as the Obama administration did), and has vigorously defended Israel for its response to Hamas's provocations in Gaza. Further, 15 GOP members of Congress attended the embassy dedication ceremony, while zero Democrats (including none of the 26 Jewish Democratic Congressional members) did. The question my friends ask is more than a justifiable query; it is a question that demands answering if one is to attain a remotely accurate picture of the current political landscape. Before providing my explanations for the question that headlines this article, I would like to explain two things that I

Compiled by Watchwoman, August 3, 2012 EMAIL GARY BAUER , American Values , 2800 Shirlington Road, Suite 950, Arlington, VA 22206 VISIT AMERICAN VALUES The Real Bigots Over the last few days I have read dozens and dozens of reports from friends around the country discussing their Chick-fil-A dining experiences this week. What struck me were the adjectives used. Customers were "happy," "upbeat," "friendly," "loving" and "polite." They were excited to have a chance to do something positive. I did not read one example of inappropriate rhetoric, anger or hatred toward anyone. Sadly, our opponents don't embrace the same spirit. While they shout about tolerance, their behavior is anything but tolerant. In this great free country, it is perfectly acceptable not to buy a product because you don't agree with the producer. But that isn't what they are doing. In Torrance, California, Chick-fil-A employees came to work this morning to see their place of business spray-painted with the words "Tastes Like Hate." Sad, but not surprising. Just a few short months ago, the left-wing Occupy Wall Street crowd wasn't content to criticize capitalism. They quickly engaged in harassing bank employees, blocking doorways to businesses and starting mini riots. Other homosexual marriage supporters harassed the young employees at various outlets and ordered only water to clog up drive-thrus. Today 15,000 activists say they will do a same-sex kiss-in at Chick-fil-A shops. Can you imagine if 15,000 heteros

PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) -- Survivors of the Parkland school shooting lay down in "die ins" at two Publix supermarkets Friday to protest the chain's support for a gubernatorial candidate aligned with the National Rifle Association, as the company announced a suspension of political contributions. The students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shouted "USA, not NRA!" and caused brief delays at the checkout as customers navigated carts around them on the floor. Pro-NRA counter-protesters also showed up at one store, and two men almost came to blows before police intervened. (Joe Burbank /Orlando Sentinel via AP) "A lot of people don't support who Publix is supporting," said Haylee Shepherd, a 15-year-old sophomore at Stoneman Douglas, who joined 13 fellow protesters on the floor for about 10 minutes at one of the stores. "It's going to reflect on them as a brand and people shopping there." Publix has been criticized by the students for supporting Agriculture Commissioner and gubernatorial candidate Adam Putnam, a Republican who has called himself a "proud NRA sellout." The activists have called for a boycott of the supermarket. Publix announced earlier this week that it would "reevaluate" its donations amid the outcry. In another statement Friday, company spokeswoman Maria Brous said the chain would halt its contributions for now as it continues that reevaluation. Senior David Hogg, one of the most vocal student activists for gun reform and one of the founders of March for O

The "What is transhumanism?" question needs to be asked, but that question can lead one off-scent. I'm willing to stipulate for the court that transhumanism is a philosophy of human progress through primarily technological evolution, which--reflecting attitudes that go back to the Enlightenment--some people are for, and some people are against. If you are skeptical of authority, as many Americans are, you probably like some sort of fairly libertarian approach to enhancement--"it's my body, and I'll enhance it if I want!" If you're more conservative--a touch of Burke, perhaps--you probably are comfortable with the idea that there is a "human nature," and that, all in all, it would be a good idea to respect that. I think both these positions, reflecting a simple system perspective on a complex adaptive system, probably only capture part of the overall gestalt. I'd rather focus on some additional questions that Kyle's piece raises for me. First, though, I would suggest that readers reacquaint themselves with (or meet for the first time) the opening scene of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey . The apes jitter about the monolith that has appeared among them, then one goes off and plays with some bones. Picking one up, he first plays with it, then starts swinging it, then realizes that it is not a bone; it is a weapon. He begins crushing things with it, including other apes. My point: An ape with a bone is a very different creature than an ape with a bone who knows it's a weapon. The

Cultural attitudes can change rapidly in this digital age, at least on some issues, among some demographic segments. For example, Millennials (born after 1980) tethered to their smart phones mimic the latest trends in music, fashion, and lifestyle displayed by their peers on blogs or social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube), or streamed by opinion outlets such as Reddit, Huffington Post, and BuzzFeed. (Few young people read traditional newspapers or subscription periodicals.) Comedy Central's The Daily Show has largely replaced cable or network news for coverage of current events, to the extent that twenty-somethings pay attention at all. Thus, it is not surprising that Millennials' opinions on many subjects--influenced by a generally secular and nihilistic worldview--diverge significantly from those of their parents. A 2014 Pew Research Center poll found that 68 percent of Millennials (age 18-34) supported same-sex marriage, compared to 48 percent for the Baby Boomer generation (born from 1946-1964). Ronald Reagan was correct that "Freedom is never more than one generation from extinction," but the point is broader. All of our cultural beliefs are up for grabs if we are not successful in passing them along to the next generation. Public opinion polls suggest that we are failing in that regard, especially on issues with moral or religious overtones. Even something as basic as gender roles can be redefined in a few short years, particularly when activist ju

Democrats were up in arms over President Trump's tweet Thursday that mocked global warming. Noting the record-breaking temperature throughout the East, the president joked that we "could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming." "In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year's Eve on record. Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against," he wrote. "Bundle up!" But Democratic lawmakers didn't think the tweet was all that funny. "I'm going to say something really crazy: I believe in science," tweeted Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). "Climate change is real and we have a moral obligation to protect this Earth for our children and grandchildren." I'm going to say something really crazy: I believe in science. Climate change is real and we have a moral obligation to protect this Earth for our children and grandchildren. -- Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) December 29, 2017 Her Democratic colleagues Sens. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) made similar remarks. "Climate change is real and it poses a grave threat to our nation and our planet. It's abundantly clear this Adminstration won't tackle climate change head on, so state and local governments must," Harris responded. Climate change is real and it poses a grave threat to our nation and our planet. It's abundantly clear this Adminstration won't tackle climate change head on, so state a

That's the mental state of many, on both the left and right, in response to the U.S. Supreme Court siding with a Colorado baker who refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple. From Hollywood's Seth MacFarlane -- brilliant in "Tinseltown" but clueless regarding politics and the law -- saying the decision is the same as a restaurant not seating blacks, to the left claiming the ruling will sanction discrimination against gays, to the right championing it as a "religious freedom" victory, they are all wrong. The icing on the cake is that, because the court wimped out by narrowly ruling on the merits of only this particular case (basically that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission was mean to the baker), the issue will be front-and-center again in the near future. Let's get the major point straight. This issue has nothing to do with religion or gays. It has everything to do with freedom and personal choice. Outside of advocacy groups on both sides throwing red meat to their bases, why this is so hard to understand remains a mystery. A baker's refusal to bake a cake for a gay couple may stem from his religious beliefs, but his legal protection isn't a "religious freedom" law. Instead, it is a right guaranteeing all Americans the freedom to make their own decisions. And they are decisions -- right or wrong, moral or immoral -- according to what people, not a paternalistic government, think is best. Americans do not always make the right decisions, but more often than not, t

"I don't live, I merely keep existing". So says one single parent in Gingerbread 's final report from a project tracking single parent finances since 2013. Their experience is typical of single parents across the country. The majority we surveyed are struggling financially and three-quarters have had to borrow from friends, family or lenders to make ends meet. This is not the story that the government wants to hear. With a focus on a jobs boom and a promise to "make work pay", a relentlessly positive outlook shines from the DWP. The reality is somewhat different. Benefit cuts have taken their toll, and single parents have been among the hardest hit. Estimates suggest over six per cent of their annual income was lost through reforms under the 2010-15 government. The 2015 Summer Budget cuts will add another 7.6 per cent loss on top by 2020, even after wage and tax gains. What's more, for all the talk of tackling worklessness, working families have not escaped unscathed. Single parent employment is at a record high - thanks in no small part to their own tenacity in a tough environment . But the squeeze on incomes has hit those in work too. The original one per cent cap on uprating benefits meant a single parent working part-time lost around PS900 over three years. Benefits are now frozen, rapidly losing value as inflation rises. On top of stagnant and often low pay and high living costs, it's perhaps unsurprising that we found working single parents surveyed just as likely to ru

I hate to break it to you, but you will leave the hospital with your sweet bundle of joy thinking to yourself (while looking down at your belly), "I thought I gave birth already." Every mom has been there. Let's get that straight first . . . and admit that it sucks. No matter what size, body shape, or weight you were pre-pregnancy, we all feel the same stress about looking different after the baby is born. And the truth is, you will think about it a lot -- almost as much as your days will soon be consumed with becoming a feeding machine. And almost as much as you are thinking about it, you will be talking about it. You might not realize it, but you will most likely begin to obsess about it, and simple weight loss chit-chat becomes the (almost) center of your new world. Take a breath, and stop obsessing about losing the damn baby weight. Here's why. You're using it as a crutch. Find yourself ending each sentence with . . . when I lose the baby weight? Yup, it happens. Once the baby weight is there, we seemingly put things on hold until we lose a desired amount of weight, as if we're not allowed to have any brand new experiences until the pounds are shed. This crutch prohibits you from living your life and is giving the power to the baby weight. Just stop it. The whining is getting annoying. Yes, I said it and you read correctly. It's annoying to hear you repeat the same thing over and over about yourself, whining about how you need to change your eating habits, work out more,

With three kids in college and friends who've needed help with their paperwork, I've spent a lot of time navigating the waters of college applications, and nothing is more irritating to me than the essay. Some schools mercifully don't require it, but many do--and it makes me cringe. According to the College Board , essays are important because they give students a chance to "reveal their best qualities and to show an admission committee what makes them stand out." Honestly, if colleges can't figure that out from four years of high school academics, standardized tests, sports, extracurricular activities, community volunteer work, and part-time jobs, then I don't know what they expect to learn from an essay. Many universities "believe the essay to be of considerable or moderate importance in determining which academically qualified students they would choose." That's right -- despite having a wealth of information from transcripts and resumes, the essay can make a difference in whether you get into college or someone else does. " When all else is equal between competing applicants, a compelling essay can make the difference," the College Board says. "A powerful, well-written essay can also tip the balance for a marginal applicant." First of all, no two students are ever "equal." That's simply impossible. Show me two students who have identical SAT, ACT, and AP scores; GPA; and club, sport, and extracurricular involvement. You can't -- because no two students are exactly the s

American voters support the death penalty 58 to 33 percent for persons convicted of murder, a new Quinnipiac University National Poll released on Thursday reveals. But when offered a choice between death or life in prison with no chance of parole, voters choose the life option 51 to 37 percent, the first time a majority has backed life without parole since Quinnipiac first asked the question in 2004. But the poll of 1,291 voters nationwide, conducted from March 16-20, also found deep party and gender divisions: Republicans back the death penalty 59 to 29 percent. Democrats back the life option 73 to 19 percent. Independent voters back the life option 49 to 37 percent. Women back the life option 56 to 33 percent. Men are divided as 45 percent back life and 42 percent support the death penalty. Voters oppose 71 to 21 percent the death penalty for persons convicted of selling drugs that cause a lethal overdose. That includes a 57 to 35 percent opposition among Republicans. Voters say 75 to 20 percent that this use of the death penalty would not stop the opioid crisis. But voters say 64 to 31 percent that the death penalty should not be abolished nationwide. Democrats are divided as 47 percent say abolish the death penalty and 46 percent say don't. Every other listed party, gender, education, age and racial group is opposed to abolishment. The poll was released a day after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions instructed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in drug-related

State Rep. Katie Arrington hugs supporters as she defeated U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel for Katie Arrington's results party on Tuesday, June 12, 2018, in North Charleston, S.C. (Andrew Whitaker/The Post And Courier via AP) Last night former South Carolina governor and (almost) five-term member of the House of Representatives Mark Sanford lost his primary election to political newcomer, State Representative Katie Arrington by a 50.5-46.5 margin. I'm not sure what either candidate really ran on other than Arrington-a Romney and Rubio supporter in the primaries-supported Trump and said she'd do so in the House and Sanford-a Trump supporter in the 2016 election-has decided that being NeverTrump was his life's calling. Sometimes, his NeverTrump enthusiasm got the better of his commonsense , like this in the aftermath of the shooting of Representative Steve Scalise: President Trump is "partially to blame" for the hostile, polarized environment that led to Wednesday's shooting during a baseball practice being held by congressional Republicans, Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., said on Thursday. Sanford drew three potential primary challengers, two of whom dropped out. This, apparently, was not a big shock in South Carolina where his under-performing 55-45 win in the 2016 primary, despite his sky-high name recognition, drew some comment. And yesterday, about three hours before polls closed in South Carolina, President Trump waded into the contest: Mark Sanford ha

If the first week of the Olympics featured hugely popular blockbuster events geared toward all genders, ages, and taste levels, then last night was its official 2012 Oscar selection. A Criterion Collection of unusual events that, while sometimes slow and belabored (and certainly not the most popular), left you thinking about them long afterward, like A Separation or Hitch . Let's look into some of those events now. Synchronized swimming finally kicked things up to the "entertaining to watch" level with its team competition, filled with beautiful young women from various nations that have spent the last few years of their lives in a pool for 10 hours a day trying their best not to look like Jessica Tandy in Prune & Prejudice by the end of practice. How the judges figure out who wins in this event is beyond me, as to the naked eye, all the teams looked super N'Sync with each other. (Save for Australia, which was clearly the Chris Kirkpatrick of the bunch.) Probably the highlight of the synchronized-swimming-team prelims was when Spain formed a perfect prayer circle begging the gods for the return of Ann Curry to The Today Show: The medal results will be determined today, as Russia is currently in the lead, followed by China and Spain. The men's canoe 1,000-meter double is really just fancy Olympic-speak for "best gondolier," as two men row their tiny hearts out while standing in a canoe. Germany's Peter Kretschmer and Kurt Kuschela (German for "Coachella") took the gold by a pr

Kilmeade: Ben, what is it about you that forces children to run for counseling? Shapiro: First of all, just look at me; I'm just pure physical intimidation. Doocy: You're scary. You're very, very scary. Shapiro: Obviously. Hasselback: It just shows, Ben, how much they need you there. These kids are going to counseling? I mean, grow up. Get some thick skin. You need to be there speaking and teach them a thing or two. Shapiro: As I've said before, if you feel you need counseling for my speech you probably need psychiatric care in some way, so I guess that's appropriate. What I talk about in these speeches is that I talk about the fact that violence in political settings is not appropriate, which you would think would be basic civics 101. I also talk about the idea that in America, you're living in the freest country in the history of the world and there aren't people out there trying to stop you, and so you should stop talking about how society is setting up institutional obstacles, and you should stop worrying so much about so-called "white privilege," you should instead focus on what you can do as an individual to better your life. And if you see instances of racism and instances of sexism or homophobia or bigotry, all of us stand with you. You can name the instance, but you can't actually just sit there and blame America for all of your problems. Doocy: Sure. We understand you're going to be talking about that radical leftist group Antifa, but ultimately don't you think, it'

President Donald Trump blasted Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) on Monday after a video clip surfaced showing her telling protesters to continue harassing administration officials in public places. Officials like Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen faced backlash at restaurants amid scrutiny over the administration's decision to separate immigrant families at the border. Nielsen, for example, faced hecklers both at her home in Alexandria, Virginia, as well as a Mexican restaurant in Washington, D.C. Waters, as IJR previously noted , encouraged people to tell administration officials they weren't welcome in public places. Watch: Maxine Waters calls for attacks on Trump administration: "If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere." pic.twitter.com/jMV7wk48wM -- Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) June 24, 2018 Trump appeared to respond on Monday but seemed to not understand what Waters actually advocated: Congresswoman Maxine Waters, an extraordinarily low IQ person, has become, together with Nancy Pelosi, the Face of the Democrat Party. She has just called for harm to supporters, of which there are many, of the Make America Great Again movement. Be careful what you wish for Max! -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 25, 2018 "She has just called for harm to supporters, of which there are many, of th

The dissents in Obergefell v. Hodges , the Supreme Court case that just brought marriage equality to all fifty states, had a lot of negative things to say about same-sex marriage and its proponents. What's perhaps most revealing about them, however, is what they did not say. Here is a look at some of the truths about the lives of gay, lesbian, and bisexual people that Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts had to ignore or set aside in order to rule against same-sex marriage. We simply know more now about same-sex orientations. The dissenting Justices' rely on an historic reading of marriage, arbitrarily defining it as always having been between one man and one woman and disregarding the many ways it has changed over time. Roberts' reference to the Han Chinese's understanding of marriage, for example, ignores the fact that the dynasty defined marriage as a hierarchical relationship between a master, his wife, and his concubine. They also ignore the fact that same-sex relationships have been recognized by numerous cultures over the centuries . Roberts claims that "marriage [his definition] did not come about as a result of a political movement, discovery, disease, war, religious doctrine, or any other moving force of world history -- and certainly not as a result of a prehistoric decision to exclude gays and lesbians." This argument from tradition disregards the emergence of psychology as a field of science, one that has revealed

Whenever there's a demonstrably horrifying event like 9/11 or Tucson or Sandy Hook, a debate always begins in earnest over who or what we should blame and what needs to happen next. And one of the central speed-bumps on the road to further gun control legislation is the fact that gun defenders have all-too-often masterfully skewed the discourse away from firearms and focused the blame on, well, everything else. It doesn't matter what, just anything that's not the American gun culture. What specifically do I mean by "gun culture?" There's an almost historical, genetic aspect of Americanism that's synonymous with firearms. Somehow, perhaps because of our revolutionary founding or the glorification of war or the romance of Wild West or all of the above, guns have become embedded in our national DNA, perhaps more so than any other industrialized nation. Due to effective marketing and lobbying, gun ownership has evolved from being a frontier necessity to a traditional metaphor for masculinity and power. American guns have become unmistakable displays of virility and strength -- of aggression, resolve and heroism -- a necessary means for conflict resolution, even though firearms are merely retail products sold for profit. And so the gun culture was on display yet again in California this past weekend, when a disturbed young man used three handguns to resolve his personal crises. It was the latter half of the 20th Century, spanning the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boomers, when

In the final days of the Conservative Party of Canada's leadership race, a candidate has come forward with a solid pro-life policy to protect the lives of children who have survived failed abortions. Brad Trost (Saskatoon-University) says that, if he's elected as party leader and goes on to become the Prime Minister of Canada, he'll introduce the "Born Alive Infant Protection Act." With hopes of building a Culture of Life, Trost says it's a policy that's 100 per cent supported by the Criminal Code of Canada, but more than that - it's the right thing to do. For further details of what Trost is proposing, please read the following email his campaign sent to supporters earlier this week. And, just in case you're an eligible voter who hasn't mailed in their ballot yet, there's still time to send in your leadership vote - click here for more details on how you can still make your voice count in this leadership race. *********CAMPAIGN ANNOUNCEMENT SENT BY BRAD TROST TO CONSERVATIVE VOTERS MAY 24, 2017******** Dear [ ], In 2013, my former Conservative Caucus colleagues, Leon Benoit, Maurice Vellacott and Wladyslaw Lizon, wrote the RCMP to ask for an investigation into hundreds of possible homicides being carried out inside Canadian hospitals and abortion facilities. Their letter read in part: "From 2000 to 2009 in Canada, there were 491 abortions, of 20 weeks gestation and greater, that resulted in live births. This means that the aborted child died after it was born. Th

Zhana Vrangalova late last month wrote a piece for Them about the results of a study by two Canadian researchers that showed that the vast majority of cisgender people (those who identify as their biological sex) would not consider dating a trans person, and that is just another example of the discrimination trans people suffer. Of 958 participants in the study, only 12 percent said they would consider dating a trans woman or trans man. Vrangalova writes : The high rates of trans exclusion from potential dating pools are undoubtedly due in part to cisnormativity, cissexism, and transphobia -- all of which lead to lack of knowledge about transgender people and their bodies, discomfort with these unknowns, and fear of being discriminated against by proxy of one's romantic partner. It is also possible that at least some of the trans exclusion is due to the fact that for some people, sexual orientation might be not (just) about a partner's gender identity, but attraction to specific body types and/or judgment of reproductive capabilities. We'll admit this is the first time we've ever seen the word "cissexism" in print. Varad Mehta of @DecisionDeskHQ -- an obvious "transphobe" -- had a few observations: "Virtually all heterosexuals excluded trans folks from their dating pool." I think I see the problem here. https://t.co/ldHEu3ODkD -- Varad Mehta (@varadmehta) August 8, 2018 "It's your fault transgender people have mental and emotional problems because you won't date them." Now th

That's how many people have visited LifeSiteNews so far this year. According to Alexa.com, the top web-ranking service, that means our readers have made LifeSite the #1 most-read pro-life website...on the planet! I know that might sound like boasting. But I can assure you, it's not! On the contrary, I'm filled with humble amazement , as well as deep gratitude for the thousands of supporters like you who have enabled us to reach so many people with the truth about abortion, marriage, faith, and family. Indeed, when myself and co-founder Steve Jalsevac founded LifeSite way back in 1997, we never, ever dreamed that 18 years later our tiny pro-life website would have grown into an international news agency employing dozens of staff, operating in numerous countries around the world, and reaching tens of millions of people every single year. Now, with just one week left in our summer 2015 fundraising campaign, and only 20% of the way towards our minimum goal, I must humbly ask for your support one more time. Please don't delay! Make the most generous donation you can to help us reach our goal! As I travel around, I am often overwhelmed by the many LifeSite readers who spontaneously come up to me, introduce themselves, and then share their stories of how our news service has touched their lives. In so many ways this is your story - the story, as Mother Teresa said about pro-life workers, of "ordinary people doing extraordinary work for God." Some tell me that LifeSite's r

An angry man was caught on video berating a woman wearing a shirt with the Puerto Rico flag on it, ranting that she should not be "wearing that shirt in America," Raw Story reports. The video posted over the weekend shows the woman calmly attempt to explain to him that Puerto Rico is actually a territory of the United States. The man refused to allow facts to enter his ears and ranted at her. "If you're an American citizen, why are you wearing that shit!" he yelled. "If you're an American citizen, you should not be wearing that shirt in America!" He shouted that "you are not going to change us," adding, "the world is not going to change the United States of America -- period!" The woman asked a police officer multiple times to intervene as the man followed her in the park but the officer refused to do anything. A bystander later confronted the man as the officer watched and got him to stop following the woman. Watch the video below:

As he rose to power, Obama promised two simple things. Firstly, that he would extricate the US from costly Middle Eastern interventions, and second that he would reshape, or at least raise questions about, American 'grand strategy' in the post-Cold War era. He also, of course, promised to close down Gitmo. He either completely failed in these projects or, at best, only partially achieved them. In his questioning of America's 'grand strategy', Obama became increasingly reluctant to get embroiled in foreign conflicts. The implosion of North Africa during the Arab Spring and the unravelling of Syria left him anxious and indecisive. This is not to say there wasn't American intervention -- there was, politically and militarily, not least through drone strikes and air attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Syria. But it was a strategy, if strategy is the right word, of what we might call buckpassing and bloodletting. In Obama's mind, the best grand strategy was to let, and sometimes encourage, regional actors to duke it out in a cordoned-off Middle East. Under Obama, America came to play the curiously contradictory role of both intervener in and confused spectator of foreign affairs, especially in volatile regions like the Middle East and North Africa. And Trump? He isn't that different. Like Obama, he channels concerns about grand strategies and overreach, while simultaneously implying interventionism of a sort. Especially through his questioning of the role and relevance of N

It's no secret that President Trump and his administration are hostile to transgender people, even if Caitlyn Jenner only came to that realization after supporting Trump during the campaign. Trump famously decided to ban transgender people from serving in the military by declaring it on Twitter, and has aggressively resisted any effort by the courts to block him . This administration has also pursued policies that endanger the safety of trans students in public schools and trans people in federal prisons . But now there is reason to believe that Trump isn't just attacking trans people for who they are -- though he is definitely doing that -- but also exploiting prejudice against this marginalized minority to launch a broad attack on women's rights. Last week, the Sunlight Foundation released an extensive report on changes to the language on the Health and Human Services (HHS) website regarding the issue of sex discrimination. These changes were made in the summer of 2017 and discovered by the National Women's Law Center , which has filed requests under the Freedom of Information Act (yet to be fulfilled), to find out why. But the fear is that soon the administration will release a rule that guts enforcement of a major provision in the Affordable Care Act meant to prohibit sex discrimination. The provision is called Section 1557, which prohibits discrimination in health care based on race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability. Under Barack Obama, HHS codified the e

P erplexed that the public haven't been voting the way they are supposed to, the political classes across the globe have been scrambling to find anyone to blame other than themselves. In the US, following the election of Trump, the finger was first pointed at the old Cold War foe, Russia. If a new report by anti-extremism charity Hope Not Hate is to be believed, Trump's victory was in fact the work of a shady network of right-wingers in the US's old colonial foe, Britain. A network of British extremist bloggers helped 'propel Donald Trump to the presidency', reports the Guardian . Hope Not Hate names Sheffield-born Infowars editor Paul Joseph Watson, Britain First founder Jim Dowson, and vlogger Colin Robertson, who produces YouTube videos from his parents' home in West Lothian, as key purveyors of the 'fake news' phenomenon which is allegedly undermining liberal democracy. While Hope Not Hate criticises the 'unashamedly conspiratorial' output of Watson and Robertson, its fearmongering over Dowson's influence is the definition of conspiratorial. Dowson tops the report's list of 'most influential' far-right Brits, having spent 2016 building up a 'disturbingly large network of alliances and friends'. His 'international network of far-right parties, militia groups and religious extremists' is said to stretch from loyalists in Northern Ireland to Russian fascists linked to the Kremlin. Of course, the real story of the far right in Britain is one of decline. The English Defence Le

Kathryn Moody : Investors, Are You Ready for the Next Global Crisis? Manuel Schiffres Mutual Fund Rankings, 2014 Meghan Streit : Pitching In When Caregivers Need Help Janet Bond Brill, Ph.D., R.D.N., F.A.N.D : How to prevent a second (and first) heart attack thru diet The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington : Caprese is a light, fresh salad; the perfect quick and easy accompaniment to any summer meal Mark Steyn : You Want Nazis? Jonathan Tobin : Care about the Jewish state's future? Obama, in interview, reveals even more reasons to worry Alan M. Dershowitz : Confirmed: Needless death and destruction in Gaza Katie Nielsen : As a mother, I'm all I need to be Cameron Huddleston : 18 Retailers That Offer Price Adjustments Nellie S. Huang : The Best Health Mutual Funds to Buy Now Brierly Wright, M.S., R.D. : Try these 'secret-weapon' foods to boost your changes of losing weight The Kosher Gourmet by Jessica Yadegaran : Take some relish in pickled goodies (5 recipes!) Kimberly Lankford : 50 Ways to Cut Your Health Care Costs James K. Glassman : Investors, Are You Ready for the Next Global Crisis? The Kosher Gourmet by Nick Malgieri : Chocolate molten delight with creme anglaise is a simple yet elegant make-ahead dessert Back in July, Democratic presidential nominee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, "there is absolutely no connection between anything that I did as secretary of state and the Clinton Foundation." On Monday of this week, ABC's Liz Kreutzer remi

WHEREAS the Declaration of Independence holds these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed with certain inalienable Rights, that among them are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness; and WHEREAS the number of people experiencing homelessness in Florida, according to the Department of Children and Families 2013 report, is approximately 45,364; and WHEREAS the lack of affordable, accessible and supportive housing is the primary cause of homelessness, with only 9,000 shelter beds and 13,000 transitional shelter beds available; and WHEREAS poverty and homelessness negatively affect the welfare of individuals as well as the community at large by creating divisions among people, dimming prospects for our youth to achieve in school and in the workplace, and increasing demand for emergency food, housing, medical and law enforcement services; and WHEREAS current responses to homelessness have been inadequate, leading to generational poverty, aggravated mental health problems and substance abuse, and increasing numbers of Floridians are forced to live in emergency shelter, on the street or in substandard conditions; and WHEREAS current ordinances criminalizing homeless activities such as sleeping and storing their valuables in public areas are discriminatory to the homeless population; and WHEREAS the people of the State of Florida recognize that discrimination because of homelessness adversely affects the welfare of individuals and

60+ Orgs to Columbia, NYU, Syracuse & UC Irvine: Jewish and Pro-Israel Students' Civil Rights Are Being Trampled Identical Anti-Jewish Harassment and Suppression of Speech Strategy Deployed at all 4 Schools Santa Cruz, CA, May 14 - Students at Columbia University, New York University, Syracuse University and University of California Irvine are deploying a repeated and deliberate strategy to create a hostile climate for Jewish and Zionist students and, in turn, suppress any and all pro-Israel expression on campus. Today, more than 60 education and civil rights organizations demanded that the heads of these schools address this harassment and violation of civil rights. Columbia University: "Over one month ago, the CU chapter of Students Supporting Israel (SSI) submitted an incident report to the University's Student Governing Board (SGB). In their report, the SSI students provided considerable and compelling evidence that anti-Zionist student groups, particularly the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), have systematically harassed and silenced SSI members and other pro-Israel voices on campus, in apparent violation of university policy and New York state law," wrote the groups about the extraordinarily hostile climate for Jewish and pro-Israel students at Columbia. Full letter to President Bollinger. New York University: We "are deeply concerned about the statement endorsed by 53 NYU organizations, which includes a call for 'Boycotting NYU's pro-Israel clubs, Realize

Back in 2014, a 14-year-old boy in the town of Everett, Pa., did something foolish. The youngster climbed on a statue of Jesus outside a local religious group's building and simulated a sex act. He had a photo taken and posted it on social media. Did this teenager behave in a crass and offensive manner? You bet. Did he deserve to be arrested for it? That's highly unlikely. The statue was not damaged, and officials at the Love in the Name of Christ ministry said they had no wish to press charges. They regarded it as a tasteless prank and said they would pray for the boy. Nevertheless, Bedford County District Attorney William Higgins sent a state police officer to the boy's home to arrest him. Higgins insisted that the youth had violated a 1972 Pennsylvania law that makes the "desecration, theft or sale of a venerated object" a second-degree misdemeanor. The law defines desecration as any act that "will outrage the sensibilities of persons likely to observe or discover the action." To Americans United, it looked like Higgins was trying to enforce a backdoor blasphemy law, and our attorneys told him so in a letter . Higgins was unfazed and on his Facebook page he wrote that if his effort to punish the boy "tends to upset the 'anti-Christian, ban-school-prayer, war-on-Christmas, oppose-display-of-Ten-Commandments' crowd,' I make no apologies." The teen's parents didn't want him to end up in a juvenile correctional facility, so they accepted a plea bargain. A judge sentenced him t

Here are the manners, personal goals, pipe cleaners, patience and other things we all need to remember as we send our kids off to school again this year: 1. School years go by in warp speed time. Yes, we all constantly hear the annoying, "It goes by so fast!" line from all the been there, done that moms. Listen up: We are not shitting you . That 5-year-old you just dropped off? He will be 17 and shaving next month. Summer may have felt like it lasted a decade, but the next nine months will be over in 11 seconds. Stop trying to rush the childhood years. As corny as it sounds, one day you might actually miss having kids to snap a picture of on the first day of school. 2. Nobody cares how you look at drop-off. Leave the blow-outs and clean, matching clothes for date night. But hey, if your thing is getting up way before everyone else, and foundation, lipstick and linen skirts with matching cardigans make you feel normal, then rock on with your fashionista self. I am perfectly comfortable driving to school in slippers and pajamas. Now, if we happen to pass each other on the road, and I can see your pink fuzzy robe? Girl , call me. I have hot coffee, donuts and plenty of DVR'd bad reality TV back at my house. 3. Save shoeboxes. And random wigs. And policemen helmets. And glue sticks. As a matter of fact, go ahead and start your stockpile of random arts and crafts supplies ASAP. You know those 72-hour food survival kits they sell? Make a craft-time one, because one night at 10 p.m.

T his week, the world was rocked by the news that an infant born in Mississippi with HIV has apparently been cured: The child tested positive for the disease several times in the first month after her birth, while she was receiving aggressive antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, but now, at the age of 23 months, she shows no sign of HIV. This development points to a hopeful way forward for infants who contract HIV during gestation or at birth, but almost all of them live not in Mississippi, but in places like Mali and Namibia. Yet thanks to the United States government and private benefactors, prompted by President George W. Bush, many of those children and their mothers do have access to some HIV/AIDS treatment programs. #ad#Just a decade ago, before President Bush inaugurated the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), it was considered impractical and unaffordable to provide the world's poor with HIV drugs. But because the U.S. has implemented PEPFAR so widely, driving down the cost of the drugs dramatically, whatever treatments come out of the Mississippi case should now be feasible in areas like southern Africa, where the HIV pandemic still rages. Essentially, a pregnant woman who is diagnosed as being HIV-positive is treated with especially high doses of ARVs, weakening the presence of the virus in her system and making her less likely to transmit it to her child via bodily fluids. Because of this treatment, mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) is now very rare i

Arkansas Razorbacks vs North Carolina Tar Heels Live Stream Free, TNT TV Details: Watch March Madness 2015 Online Free sign up cp newsletter! By Jim Gardner , Christian Post Contributor | Mar 21, 2015 9:29 PM The Arkansas Razorbacks will play the North Carolina Tar Heels on Saturday night in a big NCAA 2015 March Madness game in the Round of 32. There shouldn't be too much between these two teams, so fans can expect a tight game that could go all the way down to the wire. The game will take place from the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida, and will start at 8.40 p.m. ET. The game will be shown on TV on the TNT network, and will be available to watch online through free live stream (details below). (Photo: Reuters/Chris Keane) North Carolina Tar Heels forward James Michael McAdoo (C) works to shoot against Miami Hurricanes guard Rion Brown (15) during the second half of their ACC Championship college basketball game in Greensboro, North Carolina March 17, 2013. The No. 4 seeded North Carolina Tar Heels managed to post a season record of 25-11, compared to the No. 5 seeded Arkansas Razorbacks 27-8 record. Both of these two teams had to work hard to progress to the Round of 32, and only just scraped by Harvard and Wofford in the NCAA 2015 Second Round earlier this week. Whoever progresses today will go through to the Sweet 16 round, with the West Region set to go for a trip to the Staples Center in Los Angeles next Thursday. Both teams will be despera

The editor of Religion News Service (RNS) says grant funding received from the Arcus Foundation, a powerfully wealthy LGBT activist organization, has had no influence upon its coverage of faith issues. RNS editor-in-chief Kevin Eckstrom, reports Catholic News Agency (CNA), said taking money from the LGBT advocacy group did not affect his news service's coverage choices, including a story by David Gibson, titled " Cardinal Raymond Burke: Gays, Remarried Catholics, Murderers Are All the Same ," about a LifeSiteNews interview with Burke that covered various areas of Catholic doctrine. In his article, Gibson stated that Burke is "certainly out of step with the pastoral tone that Francis has set in his papacy," and that his "comments take on added weight in the context of the increasingly heated debate that Francis opened over how the church should respond to rapid changes in family life in the modern world." "All editorial decisions about coverage of the LGBT community, or any other issue, are made independent of any foundation support, including Arcus," Eckstrom reportedly said, however, stating that his news service welcomes financial support "from any individual or foundation that supports our aim of informing and challenging our readers." Eckstrom, according to CNA, described Gibson's piece as "a fair and even-handed treatment of a controversial (and influential) figure within the Roman Catholic Church." He added that RNS material regarding LGBT issues underwritten by Arcus i

A few media reports are all confirming the initial funding for the Fusion GPS opposition research against candidate Donald Trump came from The Washington Free Beacon and the previously undisclosed underwriter for the WFB, billionaire Paul Singer. This makes sense because WFB was the primary conservative media advocate for candidate Marco Rubio who was also backed by billionaire Paul Singer. The primary editor of WFB Matthew Continetti is married to the daughter of notorious NeverTrumper Bill Kristol: WASHINGTON - Lawyers for the conservative publication Washington Free Beacon informed the House Intelligence Committee Friday that the organization was the original funder for the anti-Trump opposition research project with Fusion GPS. ( link ) The Washington Free Beacon did not reveal their ownership, however both Breitbart and Daily Caller are confirming the financial underwriting for WFB comes from Paul Singer. The WFB is now attempting to explain their opposition research HERE . It's a rather odd dynamic to discover that a media outlet would be purchasing a contract for opposition research, no? Then again, the majority of the electorate have no idea how the right-side of the political continuum is engaged in pushing an ideological agenda - they are not just reporting facts. WFB should lose all journalistic credibility; they won't, but they should. It should also be noted, despite the conflation by the democrats, the initial commissioned opposition research had nothing to do

The Western Conservative Summit, organized by the Centennial Institute of Colorado Christian University, convened this weekend, with luminaries speaking including prospective GOP nominee Donald Trump, Senators Ben Sasse and Tom Cotton, former presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, TV star Phil Robertson, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, radio hosts Dennis Prager, Hugh Hewitt, and Erick Erickson, and Daily Wire Editor-in Chief Ben Shapiro. The video of Shapiro's previous appearance at the summit two years ago is the most widely-viewed video of any speech ever given at the summit, and this time was no different; of all the speeches given, Shapiro's speech was hailed by Jeff Hunt, the leader and director of the Centennial Institute, as the best speech of the event, as he called him "The speech champion of the summit." . @benshapiro - thank you for your excellent speech! Continue the reign as the speech champion for the Summit. #WCS16 -- jeffhunt (@jeffhunt) July 3, 2016 Despite the fact that the Jewish Sabbath restrictions prevented Shapiro from speaking until 9:30 p.m., Shapiro's audience dwarfed Trump's: Attention Alt. Right! left: Crowd at speech of Donald Trump. Right: Crowd at "JEW" @benshapiro 's speech. #WCS16 pic.twitter.com/VskAOccTKH -- Stop Trump PAC (RAT) (@StopTrumpPAC) July 3, 2016 As per usual, Shapiro offered blunt truths for the crowd to digest, warning conservatives of the threat to their values-driven movement posed by a full embrace of Donald Trump. Most im

After swearing Lieberman into his new office, Netanyahu said the following: I remain committed to making peace with the Palestinians and with all our neighbors. The Arab peace initiative includes positive elements that can help revive constructive negotiations with the Palestinians. We are willing to negotiate with the Arab states revisions to that initiative so that it reflects the dramatic changes in the region since 2002, but maintains the agreed goal of two states for two peoples. Though left-wingers and pundits have embraced the Saudi proposal as a real breakthrough for peace, there were good reasons why Israel did not rush to embrace an idea that included recognition of Israel and an end to the conflict. The Saudis presented it as a take-it-or-leave-it proposal. Its terms required Israel to give up every inch of land it won in 1967, including Jerusalem. It also said that peace must also include a "just" and "agreed upon" solution to the question of Palestinian refugees, a poison pill that is equivalent to calling for an end to Israel as a Jewish state that seemed incompatible with the notion that its sponsors were truly prepared to live in peace. It was later adjusted to imply the possibility of some territorial swaps, but the refugee clause remains problematic because the only "just" solution to that problem in the eyes of the refugees and the Muslim world is a "right of return" that means the elimination of Israel. Many in the peace process crowd continue to ignore th

Evangelical leaders picked economic recovery as the most important issue facing the nation today, according to an unscientific survey conducted on the board members of the National Association of Evangelicals. "Evangelicals care deeply about the health of our nation," NAE VP of Government Relations Galen Carey told The Christian Post. "We recognize that a strong moral foundation based on justice and righteousness in all areas of our national life is the essential prerequisite to a safe and prosperous future." Many voters link social issues, such as abortion, same-sex marriage and other biblical issues, with evangelical groups. However, leaders of socially conservative organizations have been touting economic issues for over a year. Tony Perkins, who heads the Family Research Council, has been at the forefront in talking about the importance of the economy and how it impacts social issues. "These issues are front and center. The social issues are intertwined with the fiscal issues," Perkins told The Hill in November. "People understand the reason we have big expensive government is because we have neglected and in many ways discouraged family formation, and that core economic foundation, which is the family." Conservative women voters also see economic issues at the core of what they are most concerned about, which is "security." "Women care deeply about economic issues," said Penny Nance of Concerned Women for America. "We're concerned about protecting our children, our natio

Now is the time for ambitious pols to be looking ahead to the 2016 presidential election -- nevermind that the midterms are barely in the rearview mirror. The desire to hold the nation's top office has s everal would-be candidates flocking to an unlikely destination: Canada. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie flies to Calgary on Thursday before making stops in Toronto and Ottawa on Friday. The trip is being billed as a trade mission in which the Republican will meet with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and it comes just three months after the Garden State governor urged that the controversial Keystone XL pipeline "be done today." Christie is also expected to give an energy policy speech north of the border in which he'll aggressively trumpet the pipeline, which would create an oil transport system from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Proponents of Keystone -- mainly labor unions, oil companies, and Republicans -- argue the plan would create thousands of jobs and make the U.S. less dependent on oil from the Middle East. Critics believe the project would release dangerous greenhouse gas emissions, would not bring in significant numbers of new jobs, and would have no effect on U.S. gas prices. Poll: Do you support the construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline? Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton , meanwhile, announced earlier this week that she would be headlining two events on Jan. 21 -- one in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and another in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, sponsored b

Sally C. Pipes is president and chief executive officer of the Pacific Research Institute, a San Francisco-based think tank founded in 1979. Sally C. Pipes is president and chief executive officer of the Pacific Research Institute, a San Francisco-based think tank founded in 1979. Prior to becoming president of PRI in 1991, she was assistant director of the Fraser Institute, based in Vancouver, Canada. Ms. Pipes addresses national and international audiences on health care. She is the Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy. She has been interviewed on ABC's 20/20; CNN; FOX News"; NBC "Nightly News with Brian Williams"; FOX Business Network; "The O'Reilly Factor," FOX News' "Your World With Neil Cavuto," "The Today Show;" "Kudlow & Company on CNBC; MSNBC; "Dateline;" "Politically Incorrect;" "The Dennis Miller Show;" NBC Bay Area's "Reality Check on Obamacare with Sam Brock", and other prominent programs. She was featured in the special one-hour FOX documentary, "Live Free or Die in New Hampshire," that was hosted by Bret Baier and released on August 8, 2014. The special which aired on three consecutive evenings focused on the importance of innovation in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. On the first night, the documentary was viewed by 1.3 million people. Ms. Pipes writes a bi-weekly health care column "Piping Up" for Forbes.com. She has written regular columns for the Examiner newspapers, Chief Executive , and Investor's Business Daily. Her healt

A DIFFERENT APPROACH TO MAKING OBAMA'S RECORDS "TRANSPARENT" January 20, 2011 Can Obama's executive order which coneals his records be repealed? Dear Editor: The following letter was sent to Speaker John Boehner and Rep. Darrell Issa yesterday: Rep. John Boehner Speaker of the House 1011 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515. Rep. Darrell Issa 2347 Rayburn House Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representatives: First of all, I'd like to thank you for moving in the right direction in trying to reverse and eliminate some of the evil things done by this administration and the Dems. Obama must be stopped. However, you're both attacking the wrong items. You have to cut a snake's head off to remove the threat. To start, the very FIRST thing you should do is have Congress REPEAL EXCUTIVE ORDER 13489 (See A). The first thing Obama did as putative president was issue this EO to seal all of his and his family records-criminal. What's he hiding? Let the public have access to these so they can make an honest judgment. Next, investigate why Obama is using a Connecticut social security number,042-68-4425, when he was supposedly born in Hawaii. Their numbers start with 575-576. He even had the gall to use this number on his 2009 tax form. (See B, where three separate investigators confirm that Obama is using a Connecticut number). You might also ask why he used social security number 485-40-5154 when he lived in Jackson, NJ. This number belonged to Lucille Ballantyne of Lamoni, Iowa

A Wall Street Journal editorial conflated the public charity known as the Clinton Foundation with the private, personal Clinton Family Foundation in a misleading attack on Hillary Clinton's charitable giving -- and their misinformation made its way straight to Fox News primetime. Clinton recently released her tax returns as part of her presidential campaign, and the returns reveal that she and her husband Bill donated nearly $15 million to charity from 2007-2014. The vast majority of that money went to their private philanthropic Clinton Family Foundation. As Nonprofit Quarterly explained , the Clinton Family Foundation acts "a clearinghouse for the family's personal philanthropy." According to the Family Foundation's 2014 tax filing , Hillary and Bill Clinton are the only donors, and the Family Foundation distributes their money to various charities and nonprofits, including New York Public Radio, the American Nurses Foundation, the American Heart Association -- and the separate William J. Clinton Foundation. The William J. Clinton Foundation -- which was recently renamed the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation -- is the highly-respected international charity that has garnered significant media attention since Clinton announced her run for president. It is the foundation that helps AIDS/HIV sufferers around the world get better medicine , and battles global health crises, economic inequality , childhood obesity , and climate change . But in its A

The social justice left has come out in huge numbers following the conclusion of the 2016 presidential election to rally for President-Elect Donald Trump's reelection in four years, 2020. The UK's Mirror (source of the image above) reports that campaigners have shown up in places like New York, New York, Portland, Oregon, Maryland, and Oakland and Berkeley, as well as other areas of Southern California. Groups implicitly calling for Trump's reelection have also spawned internationally, like in London, in the United Kingdom. Universities and colleges have also joined in the campaign. While reelecting Trump is not their intention, it is certainly the effect of what they are doing; The social justice left is still oblivious to the fact that they are responsible for Trump winning the presidency, this year. I have never been a fan of Trump. As a libertarian, I find some of his pledges for his first 100 days in office to be horrifying (whereas others are pretty darn good!), such as his backward plans for immigration and trade, and his apparent desire to pump even more money into the US military. But at the very least I can appreciate how the political Donald Trump came about in the first place. As Robby Soave writes at Reason : I have warned that political correctness actually is a problem on college campuses, where the far-left has gained institutional power and used it to punish people for saying or thinking the wrong thing. And ever since Donald Trump became a serious threat

What you do with your own body shouldn't have to be anyone's business but your own. When you start competing in sports, you're making it everyone's business. That's unfair to others, but also to yourself. By now you've heard the story of Mack Beggs - the high school wrestler who was born a female and competed against females to win the Texas state wrestling championship. Beggs began transitioning to a male in 2015. ATTN reports that "The transition hormones are significant because some male hormones have the potential to enhance athletic performance." MORE: Political correctness on the podium: Transsexuals will be competing against women and men at the Olympics Dr. Brandon Mines, assistant professor at Emory University's Department of Orthopedics, told CNN that "Testosterone and anabolic steroids are in the same family and have the effect of increasing muscle mass and strength gains." He is allowed to take them and compete because they are considered a "valid medical purpose". This so-called 'valid' purpose as well as the fact he wasn't allowed to compete against boys, resulted in Beggs steamrolling the competition. How bad was it? He went 56-0. The overwhelming dominance is disturbing. It's clear he doesn't belong competing against women. By contrast, MMA 'athlete' Fallon Fox, a male turned female martial artist, annihilated her female opponents. Is it fair to females that they face off against a girl who is trying to become a man? Is it fair they compete against a woman usi

It's time to revive militant legacy of LGBT movement By Judy Greenspan San Francisco Published Jul 3, 2006 3:27 PM This year's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans Pride celebration was in many ways dedicated to the Compton's Cafe teria Rebel lion of 1966, a little-known battle against police brutality and LGBT oppression that took place here three years before New York City's Stonewall Rebellion. However, trans and queer activists had to work hard to ensure that the real heroes and struggles of the day were commemorated. Workers World banner at San Francisco LBGT Pride 2006. WW Photo: Booh Edouardo The Compton's Cafeteria Rebellion was set off in August 1966 after a police sweep of the Tenderloin and harassment of Latina, Asian, Black and white trans people, at that time self-identified as drag queens, in Gene Compton's Cafeteria, a popular eating place. When a cop harassed and tried to arrest one of the drag queens, outraged transgender women, butch lesbians, gay men and others in the cafeteria fought back. According to the 1972 Official Voice of the Christopher Street West Parade Committee, "A police car had every window broken, a newspaper shack outside the cafeteria was burned to the ground, and general havoc was raised that night in the Tenderloin." It was a night of struggle that transformed the early LGBT community in this city and gave rise to the early gay liberation movement. And it is a history that has been buried for too long. On June 22, members of the transgender

Martin Luther King fought for and won equal rights in the sixties. Nelson Mandela won equal rights in South Africa in the nineties. In the UK in the 2010s the battle for equal rights has gone into reverse. The Blair/Brown administration was bookended by two of the worst pieces of legislation this country has ever seen: the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Equalities Act 2010. One of the worst features of the Equalities Act is that it allows so-called 'affirmative action' or positive discrimination in some cases. It is not required but it is allowed, and allows employers to create paid training positions targeted at groups with protected characteristics if they are under-represented in the workforce. There has recently been a spate of cases involving the BBC where training places have been offered to black and non-white minority ethnic groups. The latest development is for such a scheme to be offered in the heart of government in Westminster in conjunction with Operation Black Vote. This organisation is best known for a race-baiting advertisement featured during the EU Referendum campaign portraying a dignified elderly Indian lady sitting on a see-saw opposite a white skinhead hulk angrily pointing his finger. The message is clear: white people are aggressive, violent and problematic. A circular from Operation Black Vote perpetuates the victim narrative by staking the claim of systematic and institutionalised racism and sexism. 'A more representative Parliament would see approxi

US student Heraa Hashmi came under the spotlight after deciding to share a 712-page document of Muslims condemning atrocities on Twitter. We talk to her about the story behind the post, and her experience of life as a Muslim woman in America. Heraa Hashmi took action after she had enough of Muslims being accused of staying silent over random acts of violence. ( TRT World and Agencies ) Heraa Hashmi, a Muslim American teenager, was sick of stereotypes of Muslims being passive in the face of acts of violence carried out in the name of their religion. Last November, the 19-year-old, who is a student of molecular biology at the University of Colorado Boulder, was so irritated that she shared a list on Twitter of every instance she could find of Muslims condemning attacks. Since then her tweet has been shared over 18,000 times and won international attention. classmate: why dont muslims condemn things me: *goes home makes 712 page long list of Muslims Condemning Things with sources* me: fight me pic.twitter.com/sDhwUMIAK1 -- Heraa Hashmi (@caveheraa) November 12, 2016 Hashmi speaks with TRT World about what she hoped to achieve, and how she feels about the place of Muslim women in US society. What led you to compile a 712-page document of Muslims condemning stuff and post it on Twitter? HERAA HASHMI: It all started from an argument that I had in class. This was a history class and we were discussing violence as it pertains to religion and, obviously, the topic of terrorism and Isl

C-279 transgender 'bathroom bill' passed by House. Battle now moves to the Senate. Published: March 21, 2013 On March 20th, a majority vote in the House of Commons on Bill C-279 brought Canada one step closer to the brave new world of a gender-fluid society where male and female are no longer biological realities, but mere social constructs. Under the proposed legislation, male and female is no longer defined by physical anatomy, but rather, is determined subjectively by an individual's "inner feelings" and "experiences". The bill also seeks to change the Criminal Code so that speech critical of the transgender lifestyle/ideology could potentially be classified as "hate speech". Bill C-279 passed third reading by a vote of 149 to 137, with NDP, Liberals and the Bloc voting unanimously in support. Although most Conservatives voted against the radical proposed legislation, 17 Conservative MPs including 4 Cabinet Ministers supported it. Bill C-279 now moves to three readings in the Senate and if passed there, will enshrine in Canada's laws a radical redefinition of gender, as expressed in the Bill's definition of "Gender Identity": "Gender Identity means, in respect of an individual, the individual's deeply felt internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond with the sex that the individual was assigned at birth . " (emphasis added) Please note that the above definition is not restricted to those who've had sex-change surgery. The definition is

Seems one of the biggest debates after the horrible shooting in Sutherland Springs, TX has been whether or not Kelley had his weapon legally. The left desperately needs the firearm to be legal so they can point fingers at a failed system and insist we're not doing enough to keep bad people from being armed. Governor Abbott however just rained all over their parade: ABBOTT: "Devin Kelley sought to get a license to carry a gun in the state of Texas, but the State of Texas denied him the ability to get a gun." -- Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) November 6, 2017 Kelley was denied a license to legally carry a gun in Texas. Which makes the argument that more gun control laws would work, stupid. Clearly, gun control laws failed miserably; Kelley proved what we already know, that criminals do not obey the law. And if you limit ownership and firearms the only people who will obey the law are obeying the law in the first place. ABBOTT: "By all the facts that we seem to know, he was not supposed to have access to a gun. So how did this happen?" -- Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) November 6, 2017 Facts? FACTS?! Psh, facts are so 2008. It happened because evil men will do evil things and luckily a good guy with a gun was there to stop Kelley. Well apparently he wasn't "denied the ability to get a gun" effectively enough. He had several. -- YellerstoneNPS (@YellerstoneNPS) November 6, 2017 Thanks for proving that the solution isn't more laws. There isn't anything the state can do if it was acquired il

Ever since President-elect Donald Trump's pick for National Security Advisor , retired Gen. Michael Flynn, was connected to several social media posts regarding the Pizzagate conspiracy theory , the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency has come under fire. Even top national security figures sympathetic to Trump are calling on the next president to rescind his offer -- citing the media "clown show" that resulted after Flynn's son made headlines for spreading fake news on Twitter. Unfortunately for the retired general, however, his habit of spreading spurious stories is still catching up with him. According to CNN, Flynn made a rather dubious claim in August about "Arabic" signs located sporadically along the U.S.-Mexico border that were meant to guide "radicalized Muslims" into the country illegally. To support his claim, which Flynn made during an interview with Breitbart News on SiriusXM Radio, he referenced anecdotal information received by friends on the Border Patrol and photos he'd allegedly seen: "There are countries -- radical Islamist countries, state-sponsored -- that are cutting deals with Mexican drug cartels for some of what they call the 'lanes of entry' into our country. And I have personally seen the photos of the signage along those paths that are in Arabic. They're like way points along that path as you come in. Primarily, in this case the one that I saw was in Texas and it's literally, it's like signs, that say, in Arabic, 'this way, move to th

Previously, I set out how the hollowing out, the denigration of the private sphere, and in particular the flight made by women from said sphere has caused a massive expansion of the State. Today I intend to burn some bridges, so to speak, and wag my finger, matriarch style at a few ne'er-do-wells. I wag and point my finger at you: conservative man, many of whom, although not all (such as loyal readers of this website, the prophetic Peter Hitchens, the brilliant Geoff Dench and the classy Roger Scruton) are nothing more than a pack of cheese-eating surrender monkeys to the liberal/PC onslaught. Let me explain. Although not as bad as libertarian man (heaven help us), conservative man has been pretty useless in the great battle against the big State takeover of the private sphere. I say this after some careful consideration of the issues and fine balancing of the debate. Sadly, however, I have come to the conclusion that conservative man is about as effective as a packet of condoms in the 'nearly new' basket. They are good at moaning and griping about high taxes, sure. There is plenty of think-tanking going about this, oodles of research, and deluges of blogs. Who wants to put their hand in their pocket to pay for another person's irresponsibility? Nobody, so gripe away. But what about all the other stuff - the huge amounts of middle class welfarism and in particular the liberal PC culture that we all agree is utter drivel? There is much complaint about it but very little action

Rep. Trey Gowdy is blasting the Obama administration both for not forcing so-called sanctuary cities to enforce federal immigration law and for not calling the family of Kate Steinle the same way he calls celebrities and thugs. In an appearance Wednesday on Fox News' "Varney and Co.," Gowdy said the House of Representatives has attempted to deal with the sanctuary city issue through legislation but that the onus for why federal authorities don't crack down on sanctuary policies is on the White House. "Why this administration decided to make detainers [requests from federal immigration officials to hold individuals to be deported] permissive instead of mandatory is something ultimately you're going to have to ask the administration," Gowdy said. "We asked it repeatedly yesterday and we got no good answer other than this mistaken, nostalgic belief that if you ask people to cooperate eventually they will. What they didn't answer is how many innocent people have to die before that happens." Gowdy then blasted the president for not calling the family of Kate Steinle, who was murdered by a 5 time deported, seven time felon illegal alien. "We have a president who loves to call entertainers and loves to call athletes," Gowdy said. "And I'm sure that makes the news and that's fun to talk to famous people. "But when you have an innocent young woman who is doing nothing more than walking with her father in an American city, and [she is] killed by someone who has been deported five times

PBS has suspended distribution of late-night talk show Tavis Smiley after an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against host Tavis Smiley, Variety reports . Smiley has denied the allegations. The network released the following statement: Effective today, PBS has indefinitely suspended distribution of Tavis Smiley , produced by TS Media, an independent production company. PBS engaged an outside law firm to conduct an investigation immediately after learning of troubling allegations against Mr. Smiley. This investigation included interviews with multiple witnesses as well as with Mr. Smiley. The inquiry uncovered multiple, credible allegations of conduct that is inconsistent with the values and standards of PBS, and the totality of this information led to today's decision. According to Variety , the investigation was conducted by Sarah Taylor Wirtz of the venerable Los Angeles law firm MSK , who interviewed ten witnesses, primarily former staffers, about their interactions with Smiley. Although Wirtz declined to comment, Variety reports that sources close to the investigation said that she had uncovered credible claims that Smiley had had sexual relationships with more than one subordinate, that witnesses were concerned Smiley was tying employment status to sexual relationships with him, and that they feared retaliation from the host. Additionally, Variety reports, witnesses said that Smiley had created "a verbally abusive and threatening environment" for his

Protestors descended on Publix stores across the nation Friday, following the lead of the "March For Our Lives" activist David Hogg, to stage a "Die-In" protest. The whole idea for the protest started when Hogg tweeted: . @Publix is a #NRASellOut In Parkland we will have a die in the Friday (the 25th) before memorial day weekend. Starting at 4pm for 12 min inside our 2 Publix stores. Just go an lie down starting at 4. Feel free to die in with us at as many other @Publix as possible. -- David Hogg (@davidhogg111) May 23, 2018 The tweet was in reference to Publix having donated more than $650,000 to Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Putnam 's campaign since 2017. Putnam is self-described as a "proud #NRASellout." Prior to the protest, a Publix spokesman Dwaine Stevens released a statement saying, "We would never knowingly disappoint our customers or the communities we serve. As a result, we decided earlier this week to suspend corporate-funded political contributions as we reevaluate our giving processes.'' Following the national protest on Friday, video surfaced of one of the individual protests happening in Orlando, Florida. Publix staff and patrons look on as protestors lay on the ground and protestors chant, "Hey, hey, NRA, how many kids have you killed today?" pic.twitter.com/br8KgCptHx -- Paola Perez (@pdesiperez) May 25, 2018 In the video protestors can be heard chanting, " Hey, Hey, NRA, how many kids have you killed today? " This chant was quite misguid

Everyone's been talking about the climate, or at least the weather, recently. Indeed, whereas one weather event does not indicate a great deal (as the chaotic nature of the weather defeats most predictions) public opinion about climate change appears to be shifting in support of preventative measures. So big business is starting to take note and factor in climate protection costs in their long term planning. The recent polar vortex in North America, unseasonal warmth in Europe, and extreme heat in Australia have people looking at weather patterns with renewed interest, and what they see is a global pattern of extreme behavior. These events were all statistical outliers, which could be dismissed as normal variation. However, when you are faced with what looks like a new form of "El Nino" that passes over the Arctic, rather than the Atlantic Ocean, it begs a question whether there will be large-scale repeats of these "statistical outliers". Melting ice The underlying logic of climate change, that the atmosphere stores energy, and when there's proportionally more carbon dioxide in it, it stores more, is more widely accepted than ever. Also with the opening of the Northwest Passage through Canada and around Alaska, the basic logic that ice melts when it gets warm is undeniable. However, the pattern of freezing and thawing in the Arctic is not fully understood, and solid predictions remain unattainable. Now all of this is being watched by big business, and they are starting to pla

Ari Ezra Waldman is a 2002 graduate of Harvard College and a 2005 graduate of Harvard Law School. After practicing in New York for five years and clerking at a federal appellate court in Washington, D.C., Ari is now on the faculty at California Western School of Law in San Diego, California. His areas of expertise are criminal law, criminal procedure, LGBT law and law and economics. Ari will be writing weekly posts on law and various LGBT issues. The notion, popular among progressives and LGBT advocates, that child-rearing does not play a role in our conception of marriage is not quite accurate. Children may not be necessary to legally define marriage, but to many of us, marriage is about that ultimate expression of love, bringing another life into this world and providing Little Jimmy or Little Jackie with an environment the fosters growth, maturation and eventual independence. Let us then distinguish between horizontal relationships like marriage, the legal definition of which should not depend upon the presence (or conceivable presence) of a child, and vertical relationships like caregiving and child-rearing, that ultimately define what our married life will be like. Like I argued in an earlier piece about the legal quandaries faced by lesbian couples who seek out sperm donors to create their families, gay men who adopt are also wading into the oft-unkind waters of the law. Undoubtedly, things are changing. Just last week, an intermediate appellate court in Florida overtur

Yesterday was a good news/bad news kind of day after decisions by the Supreme Court dealing with the First and Second Amendments of the Constitution. The good news comes to us in a surprising 7-2 ruling in favor of religious freedom in the case of Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer . In that case, the state of Missouri had excluded Trinity Lutheran from a government program that provides grants to preschools and daycare centers to purchase rubberized surface material designed to make playgrounds safer. The sole reason Missouri denied the highly qualified center because it is run by a church. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Roberts explained the decision: "The express discrimination against religious exercise here is not the denial of a grant, but rather the refusal to allow a church--solely because it's a church--to compete with secular organizations for a grant . . . "In this case, there is no dispute that Trinity Lutheran is put to the choice between being a church and receiving a government benefit. The rule is simple: no churches need apply." Now the bad news. Kimberly Ross The Supreme Court took a pass on hearing an appeal of the case Peruta v. California , a case involving the right to carry firearms--particularly concealed firearms--in public. By declining to hear the appeal, a decision by the almost-always-overturned Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was allowed to stand. The result of the Court's non-decision means California can arbitrarily deny

First, we must recognise that football is a patriotic and political game, as the fans cheer for teams first and foremost based on their nationality and politics. It could also be seen as a political tool and manipulator, as the countries have funded them and spent billions of dollars on them. Football also tends to show the national emotions, tendencies, approaches, biases and rivalries during the games in the form of the people's expression of their affiliations and national and religious loyalty. For example, I believe that many cheered for the Moroccan, Egyptian and Tunisian teams in the World Cup based on national or religious reasons. We also must not forget that some Arabs rooted for the Russian team against the Saudi team for political reasons. Therefore, the national and political link plays a major role in the masses' cheering for one team or another. Despite the fact that the World Cup took place in Russia and Russia tried to whitewash its crimes committed in Syria and show itself in a different light, this did not stop the Arab masses, from the ocean to the Gulf, from being happy when it was beaten by Croatia. They mocked Putin and praised the Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic. The social media sites, which have become a means to gauge the masses' feelings and attitudes, were filled with her pictures and achievements in Croatia, after she rescued the country from its economic crisis without putting extra burdens on the people. This has made her popular an

Suddenly liberals, such as Renee Loth , columnist for the uber-liberal Boston Globe, are reading the U.S. Constitution and discovering the 10th Amendment. Her sudden burst of enthusiasm for constitutional rights should be understood for what it is, entirely situational. As she expresses fear that Donald Trump may invoke the 10th Amendment to rescind past liberal violations of the same, we conservatives who are genuinely pro-Constitution, ought to view this position as an opportunity to advance real freedom. The 10th Amendment, known as the states-rights amendment, reads as follows: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Loth fears that Trump might return federal government responsibility over healthcare, welfare, education, justice, and various social programs -- responsibilities that were previously usurped by the federal government -- back to the states. Her concerns are correct. President Donald Trump and the Republican Congress may very well prove to head the most Constitutionally oriented government since the days of Calvin Coolidge. Trump appears to possess a genuine belief in the ability of the American people to govern themselves through smaller structures of government. Those of us who support the genuinely democratic principle of subsidiarity, by which the stronger government is the more local government, by which government is more directly a

This headline came from a 2015 article in Bloomberg News that featured an expose on Steve Bannon, the new CEO for the Trump campaign. Bannon has been the Executive Chairman of Breitbart News , one of the far-right's most vicious media tabloids. Bannon's choice to run the Trump campaign should scare both Republicans and Democrats since Bloomberg names Bannon as the leader of the "new vast right-wing conspiracy." Brietbart targets both Democrats and establishment Republicans with similar hate and anger. Bannon has made it his mission to take down both Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush. Recall, Jeb Bush was the presumed Republican choice for the nomination. Bannon and his pirates played a significant role in promoting Trump and killing Bush's campaign. Bannon has been closely linked to the alt-right movement. The alt-right movement is defined as the right-wing movement in the Republican Party that portrays itself as the alternative to traditional mainstream conservatives. The alt-right movement is closely associated with white supremacy, anti-immigration, anti-Semitism, right-wing populism and nativism. In just the last few days, it was revealed Bannon has been accused of making anti-Semitic remarks in the past. In a speech last week in Reno, Nevada, Hillary Clinton described the Trump campaign's link to the alt-right movement as, "Taking hate groups mainstream." Clinton went after Trump, "for fanning the flames of racism embraced by alt-right and the community of activists that tend

JFK was alive to hear King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Both men were assassinated - their dreams shattered by bullets. President Donald J. Trump has a dream. He dreams that America can fulfill the dreams of MLK and JFK. He dreams that American civilians can be unified like the American military as one cohesive American family regardless of race and make America great again through patriotism. What unifies the military is patriotism, equality, common cause and an infrastructure of observed rules of conduct. We can become a unified society with a parallel commitment to patriotism, equality, common cause and an infrastructure of observed laws that keep order. Americans do not bow to power - we enjoy a three-part government structured with checks and balances on executive power. Laws are designed to be changed peacefully through open debate and votes by elected representatives of the people. The current trend of divisiveness and anarchy fomented by Obama's Leftist "resistance" movement is designed to collapse American democracy and our balanced three-branch system. What is the purpose of relabeling illegal immigrant children with the romanticized term "Dreamers?" Are the dreams of legal American children less valuable? These are important questions to consider because they define our national priorities. President Trump prioritizes American children and American workers. His America-first promises and policies are designed to preserve and protect American sovereignty, Amer

While the courts have continued to block President Obama's executive amnesty programs, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) is acknowledging that the Obama administration's changes to its immigration enforcement policies are already shielding millions from deportation. Monday night the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's injunction blocking the Obama administration from granting unilateral amnesty and work permits to millions of illegal immigrants. Gutierrez, one of the most vocal amnesty advocates, expressed hope for the Obama administration's appeal to the Supreme Court and optimism that executive amnesty would eventually go forward. "The Supreme Court is on the clock and millions of American families are waiting. Whatever else the Obama Administration is working on today, I hope they are immediately appealing this decision to the Supreme Court so that we have swift resolution," Gutierrez said in a statement Tuesday. The Justice Department signaled Tuesday it would take the matter to the Supreme Court. While the illegal immigration population waits for the outcome, Gutierrez highlighted that the Obama administration's immigration enforcement policy -- which prioritizes immigration enforcement, largely reserving removal for national security threats and aliens with a severe enough criminal record -- is already shielding millions of illegal immigrants from deportation. "In the meantime, how the United States prioritizes deportations is already protecting millions of f

Geert Wilders, the Dutch anti-Muslim politician. Photo: Cynthia Boll/AP A Dutch newspaper report highlighted by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on discord between American Jewish organizations and the virulent anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders has cast a renewed spotlight on organized Jewish support for Wilders. The Dutch publication De Telegraaf reported recently that American Jewish organizations like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) and the Orthodox Union (OU) were "furious" at Wilders' support for a bill that would have banned "ritual slaughter" in the Netherlands. Though the bill passed, the Dutch Senate scrapped it in June. Wim Kortenoeven, a disgruntled former member of Wilders' Party for Freedom, told the JTA that the ADL, OU and ZOA "may have helped Wilders out by organizing fundraising events here and there, and perhaps with some publicity." Kortenoeven met with Jewish organizations earlier this month to sound the alarm on the Party for Freedom's support for the ritual slaughter bill. All three organizations have denied raising funds for Wilders and his party. Wilders, too, has denied the Dutch report, telling the JTA that Kortenoeven's statements were "nonsense and agitation by a spiteful former member" of his party. The report that the ADL has ties to Wilders is dubious and likely wrong, given that the ADL routinely blasts Wilders' Islamophobic rhetoric . But while the ZOA's head Morton Klein may be "'shocked and disapp

Fox News screengrab Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded to questions about President Donald Trump's mental fitness in the tried-and-true playground tactic of "I know you are, but what am I?" Fox News host Brian Kilmeade asked Sanders on Friday about her reaction to claims in the new book "Fire and Fury" by Michael Wolff made by numerous White House aides that Trump is mentally unfit for the job . "Look, I think it's absolutely insane to think all of these individuals, reporters and others, who suddenly have a medical degree and think that they can diagnose somebody, many times who they've never even had a conversation with," Sanders replied.It's absolutely outrageous to make these types of accusations, and it's simply untrue, and it's sad that people are going and making these desperate attempts to attack the president." "What I think is really mentally unstable is people that don't see the positive impact that this president is having on the country," she said. "The economy is booming, we're crushing ISIS, day after day things are getting better for Americans all over this country. And I think it's really sad that these people don't see that, and that they're not celebrating and trying to join in the president's efforts to turn our country around." Watch the interview below: . @PressSec : 'Michael Wolff Made Up a Lot of Stories to Try to Sell Books' https://t.co/zDTiw6zpmm pic.twitter.com/SrFnTRKQG8 -- Fox News (@FoxNews) January 5, 2018

In denouncing Republicans as "scared of widows and orphans," and castigating those who prefer Christian refugees to Muslims coming to America, Barack Obama has come off as petulant and un-presidential. Clearly, he is upset. And with good reason. He grossly, transparently underestimated the ability of ISIS, the "JV" team, to strike outside the caliphate into the heart of the West, and has egg all over his face. More critically, the liberal world order he has been preaching and predicting is receding before our eyes. Suddenly, his rhetoric is discordantly out of touch with reality. And, for his time on the global stage, the phrase "failed president" comes to mind. What happened in Paris, said President Obama, "was an attack on all of humanity and the universal values that we share." And just what might those "universal values" be? At a soccer game between Turkey and Greece in Istanbul, Turks booed during the moment of silence for the Paris dead and chanted "Allahu Akbar." Among 1.6 billion Muslims, hundreds of millions do not share our values regarding women's rights, abortion, homosexuality, free speech, or the equality of all religious faiths. Set aside the fanatics of ISIS. Does Saudi Arabia share Obama's views and values regarding sexual freedom and the equality of Christianity, Judaism and Islam? Is anything like the First Amendment operative across the Sunni or Shiite world, or in China? In their belief in the innate superiority of their Islamic faith and the culture and

By Doug Bandow, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute (@Doug_Bandow) | 8/12/2014 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has begun to transform Japan into a normal country. Tokyo plans to take a more active role internationally. Eventually it should take over responsibility for defending itself. As military occupier after World War II the U.S. imposed Article Nine of the Japanese constitution, disarming Tokyo. But in recent years the U.S. has pushed Japan to do more militarily. A serious debate has been percolating within Japan at least since the early 1990s, especially after North Korea and China reminded the Japanese that they faced potential threats. So far Tokyo simply has revised its interpretation of Article Nine. Japan's "Self Defense Force" will be allowed to cooperate with other countries in combat. However, noted the Prime Minister: "There is no change in the general principle that we cannot send troops overseas." Overseas the response was mixed. Naturally, the U.S. was pleased. China was unhappy. The Republic of Korea explained it was "paying sharp attention to" the policy. Other nations--in a break from the past--were supportive. Australia endorsed the move. So did the Philippines and Singapore. Some critics still worry about Tokyo's ultimate intentions, as if the Japanese had a double dose of original sin. But Japan, with a stagnant economy, middling (and declining) population, and pacifist ethos, doesn't look much like the next global dominatrix. Instead, Japan'

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have planned to run a billboard ad near the U.S.-Mexican border that will call for Donald Trump Jr. to be deported from the States. The animal rights organization is making a statement that criticizes Trump Jr. for his hunting hobby. According to a recent release, the billboard features a photo of him holding a knife and the tail of an elephant. "Deport Callous Cheating Opportunists Now!" the billboards read. "All nations have their undesirables. Kindness welcome." VIOLENT, CRUEL, UNFAITHFUL, OPPORTUNISTIC. Factual description of this Undesirable who travels to foreign countries to shoot wildlife in cold blood in a pathetic display of "white Bwana complex" male insecurity. One day he'll get his come-uppance. pic.twitter.com/uKHQM0EQ8x -- Ingrid Newkirk (@IngridNewkirk) April 6, 2018 In a release, PETA stated that the billboards will run in El Paso and Laredo, Texas. The announcement of the ad coincided with President Trump's escalated rhetoric regarding illegal immigration and after his signing of an order to deploy National Guard troops to the border. "While people are fleeing to the U.S. to escape violence, over-privileged, callous, cheating louts like Donald Trump Jr. are flying overseas to gun down living, feeling beings just for fun," PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said in the release. "PETA's border ad is a reminder that kindness is a virtue and that Central America doesn't hold all the cards when it comes to 'bad ho

Matt Lee: You are familiar or aware of the comments that the Israeli defense minister has made this week? What do you think of them? MS. Jen PSAKI: Well, clearly, his comments were not constructive. Secretary Kerry spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu this morning, and he protested to him his concerns about these comments. We maintain - the United States maintains an unshakable commitment to Israel's security. President Obama has provided an all-time high level of security assistance to Israel, including critical Iron Dome and missile defense funding, even during times of budget uncertainty, to provide Israel with unprecedented capabilities and options that help Israel better deal with regional threats and challenges. And Prime Minister Netanyahu himself has said that the breadth of our security cooperation is unprecedented. So it is certainly confusing to us why Defense Minister Ya'alon would continue his pattern of making comments that don't accurately represent the scope of our close partnership on a range of security issues and on the enduring partnership between the United States and Israel. Lee: Well, what does it say to you about your allegedly - I'm going to say now - close and enduring partnership when the defense minister of your top ally in the Middle East runs around making - insulting the Secretary of State and criticizing the President for being a wimp, essentially, and not defending Israel's interests? Does that really - is that reflective of a close - and may

President Donald Trump is expected to announce on Tuesday his decision to end or continue the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which temporarily protects immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally when they were children, according to the White House. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president's decision is likely on Tuesday, The Hill reported. Trump initially promised to end the DACA program, but later indicated he will reconsider the decision. Free sign up cp newsletter! "The president's priorities of immigration are to create a system that encourages legal immigration and benefits our economy and American workers," Sanders said. "The president has been very clear he loves people. He wants to make sure that this decision is done correctly. So that's what he's doing now, finalizing that part." Fox News quoted an anonymous source as saying that Trump may end the program but will allow so-called "dreamers" currently in the program to stay in the U.S. until their work permits expire. If the program is fully ended, it would affect nearly 800,000 DACA recipients. Some evangelical leaders want President Trump to continue to protect immigrants. The Evangelical Immigration Table, a coalition of evangelical organizations and leaders who advocate for immigration reform that is "consistent with biblical values," sent three letters last month to Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Speaker of the

Mort Kondracke and Fred Barnes have just published a marvelous book, Jack Kemp, the Bleeding Heart Conservative Who Changed America . Reviewing the book today, the New York Times slams it. Not only did the Kemp-Roth tax cut legislation of 1981 fail to do any good, Tim Noah, the reviewer, insists, but the legislation -- the centerpiece, you will recall, of Reagan's first-term economic reforms -- proved "a disaster." Although the most genial of men, Mort Kondracke is fighting back. Below, a reply that he sent to a couple of dozen of his friends, asking us to publish it wherever we could. Honored to have been on that list, I hereby comply, and-as you are about to see, Mort's takedown of Noah's slovenly work is a thing of beauty -- I do so with relish. By Morton M. Kondracke I feared that The New York Times would assign a Reagan-hater to review Jack Kemp: The Bleeding Heart Conservative Who Changed America. Mercifully, it didn't pick Paul Krugman, who would have been savage. Instead, it chose Tim Noah, now of Politico, whose review is polite, just misguided. First thing, he labels both me and co-author Fred Barnes "right of center," which Fred definitely is, but I'm not. "Mushy moderate" is Fred's characterization of me. Moderate Independent is what I call myself. He gets it wrong that Kemp passed his tax bill in 1978; it didn't happen til 1981. He has Kemp serving as HHS Secretary under Bush 1; it was HUD. And he dismisses Kemp, whose life and political career were devoted to id

WA Premier Colin Barnett was relieved to learn the law was on the government's side regarding its controversial shark cull policy. Mr Barnett made the admission after Sea Shepherd's fast-tracked legal challenge to the program collapsed in the WA Supreme Court yesterday. The activists had questioned the validity of an exemption under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, granted by federal environment minister Greg Hunt, which allowed the WA government to kill any protected great white, tiger or bull shark larger than three metres caught in certain zones. The exemption runs until the end of the trial program on April 30. But Sea Shepherd wanted it stopped immediately, arguing the exemption was not valid because it was not published in an official government gazette. If it had secured a court injunction, the state government would have been forced to remove baited drum lines off Perth and the South West region. But yesterday, Judge James Edelman disagreed and decided against granting the injunction. Premier Colin Barnett said the action was taken on a minor technical point and agreed it was a relief to know the law was on the government's side. ``Had the court said we should have (removed the drumlines), then we would have done it in an hour,'' he told ABC radio today. ``The only reason there was a hesitancy about doing that was probably because it wasn't required - that's what the judge found - and also we wanted to protect the privacy of crews on boats

Even before Indiana Governor Mike Pence was selected as the GOP vice presidential candidate, all three broadcast networks instructed viewers that he was a "staunch conservative" and "social conservative" who was "popular with the Tea Party." But those same networks are now advertising Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton's choice to be the Democrats' vice presidential candidate, as a "centrist" and "moderate," even though Kaine is as far to the left as Pence is to the right. The American Conservative Union has been rating members of Congress for decades. During his 12 years in Congress, Pence earned a near-perfect 99% conservative score from the group. As for Tim Kaine, his three years in the Senate have earned him a zero rating, meaning he never once voted as conservatives would wish. For comparison purposes, Hillary Clinton earned an 8% rating during her 8 years in the Senate, while Bernie Sanders lifetime ACU score is 6%. For its part, the liberal Americans for Democratic Action have approved of Kaine's votes 88% of the time, compared to just 4% of the time for Pence. But on Friday night's CBS Evening News , correspondent Nancy Cordes claimed Kaine was a moderate: "The choice of a moderate like Kaine could disappoint Bernie Sanders' voters, who preferred more liberal finalists like [Elizabeth] Warren and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown." Saturday morning on ABC's Good Morning America , co-host Dan Harris described Kaine as "a moderate, not a liberal." Friday on NBC's Tod

DOJ expected to release inspector general's report on June 14; reaction on 'The Ingraham Angle.' This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," June 7, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Good evening from Washington, I'm Laura Ingraham and this is "The Ingraham Angle." We have an unbelievable show for you tonight. You do not want to miss a minute. I will be go head to head with Reverend Jesse Jackson, we're going to debate the NFL protests now that Collin Kaepernick wants to force the President to testify in his lawsuit against the NFL, oh okay. Plus we've learned that when the IG Report will be out. The FBI and DOJ will be releasing it next week and that it may cover much more than the Hillary email investigation, oh enticing. Meanwhile Chuck Grassley wants to find out if the FBI broke its own informant rules by potentially infiltrating the Trump campaign. Also the video you have to see to believe, a big city mayor unseemly celebrating over a policy that frankly brings death and destruction. But first the Dems and the Porn Star, that's the focus of tonight's "Angle." The news just keeps getting better and better for the country and the guy leading it. Today the government reported that jobless claims fell in June to their lowest level in 44 years. Lay-offs are also way down near a 50 year low and 223,000 jobs were added to the economy in May. Voters are feeling the improvement in the economy and they're rew

This kind of bad reporting about the NRA's annual meetings have become a weird sort of annual tradition. Vice President Mike Pence will address the group this week, and as the Washington Post points ou t, members will not be allowed to carry their firearms to the event while Pence is there. What the headline and the lead of the report suggests is that this is the NRA's idea: The National Rifle Association has championed the idea of "a good guy with a gun," but no firearms will be allowed when Vice President Pence speaks at its annual meeting -- sparking criticism from Parkland, Fla., students, who say schools should be afforded the same protection. And in a rare occurrence, even some NRA supporters have voiced opposition to the prohibition. Pence is scheduled to speak at the annual NRA gathering in Dallas on Friday, and many attendees will be packing guns, knives and other weapons for the event -- which includes "more than 20 acres" of firearms exhibits expected to draw 80,000 members. It takes four paragraphs to get to the real facts of the restriction: But the NRA said the U.S. Secret Service will coordinate security for the Pence speech and will not allow weapons in the arena while he is present. "As a result, firearms and firearm accessories, knives or weapons of any kind will be prohibited in the forum prior to and during his attendance," the NRA said. A detailed list of prohibited items includes ammunition, drones, gun parts, firearm magazines, as well as signs and glas

At 1 P.M. today, the California Supreme Court ruled that the proponents of Proposition 8--the ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage in the state--have "standing" to defend the measure in court, even though the governor and attorney general refused to do so. For celebrity lawyer team Ted Olson and David Boies, this means their challenge will likely end up at the Supreme Court. The history of this case is complicated--and the question facing the California court, narrow. After Judge Vaughn Walker ruled the ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional in federal court last year, the case moved up to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. When a state law is struck down by a federal court, it typically falls to the state attorney general to defend it. But then-California Attorney General Jerry Brown and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger refused to do so, leaving the sponsors of the ballot initiative, ProtectMarriage, as the only ones left to defend the ban. The Ninth Circuit asked the California court for a recommendation on whether ProtectMarriage was entitled to defend Prop. 8 under California law. What today's decision means for the marriage movement is that the scope of the Olson-Boies challenge to Prop. 8 just got a lot bigger. Had the California court ruled that ProtectMarriage was not entitled to defend the same-sex-marriage ban, the Ninth Circuit would again probably have followed suit and let the lower-court ruling stand. Gay marriage would again be legal in California, bu

On Tuesday's Morning Edition , NPR's Carrie Johnson played up the positive financial impact for same-sex couples if the Supreme Court strikes down the Defense of Marriage Act. All of Johnson's talking heads came from the left side of the political spectrum - the plaintiff challenging the 1996 law at the Supreme Court; an accountant who caters to same-sex couples; a fellow for the liberal Tax Policy Center; and an openly homosexual law professor. The correspondent touted how the litigant before the Supreme Court " inherited a huge estate tax bill - a bill she would have avoided if her marriage had been recognized under federal law ." Johnson led her report with a soundbite from Edie Windsor, whose case - United States v. Windsor - will be argued before the Court on Wednesday. Just before giving her "huge estate tax bill" line, the journalist outlined that "married her partner of more than 40 years in Canada back in 2007. Their relationship was recognized by the State of New York, where they lived together." The NPR correspondent continued with a clip from Nanette Lee Miller, an "accountant who works with gay and lesbian clients ", and noted that same-sex couples "don't get a marital deduction for estate tax purposes, so they usually need access to cash or life insurance to be able to inherit their partner's share of a home or other assets. That could change, if the high court rules for Edie Windsor." Later in the segment, Johnson played soundbites from the Tax Policy Center's

Portland, Ore. police refused to respond to at least two 911 emergency calls from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) employees inside their offices where violent protestors held week-long demonstrations. The National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council, a union representing ICE employees, wrote a cease-and-desist letter to Mayor Ted Wheeler, asking him to ensure the police enforce the law equally and protect innocent people. "Your current policy forbidding Portland law enforcement agencies from assisting employees of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency who request law enforcement assistance while at or away from work is a violation of the United States Constitution's Equal Protection Clause," the letter says. Demonstrators, some affiliated with the domestic terrorist organization Antifa, set up a city of tents outside the ICE offices. After setting up camp, they became violent and incited violence several times . "Every person in law enforcement knows there are few things as dangerous or as unpredictable than an angry mob," said Chris Crane, president of the national union, WWeek reported Monday. "No one could have responded quickly enough to protect our employees who were trapped inside this building. All of this because the Mayor of Portland has a beef with the president of the United States." The activists were able to get the government to shut down the Portland ICE offices June 20, but were able to return to work July 3, The Daily Cal

PROTESTERS have marched on Downing Street to protest the alliance between the Tories and Democratic Unionist Party. Waving placards boasting "Kick the Tories Out" and "Pray the DUP away", angry protesters yesterday slammed the Conservative win and minority government formed with the hardline DUP. Rex Features 9 A man yells near the face of a Met Police officer during the protests Raging protesters criticised Theresa May's decision to join forces with the DUP, after the Prime Minister lost huge ground in the snap election. Chants echoed around Downing Street of the new alliance, with organisers from the Stand Up to Racism and Stop the War speaking to the angry crowds. Those protesting were particularly furious over the DUP's conservative views, which include opinions on gay rights and abortion. Rex Features Getty Images Rex Features PA:Press Association 9 Hundreds gathered in protest to the alliance between the Tories and the DUP Getty Images 9 Police stand guard as protesters chant against the alliance between the Tories and DUP It comes as the DUP agreed to prop up Theresa May's diminished Government in a "confidence and supply basis". Downing Street said the Northern Ireland party has given an "outline agreement" approval in principle in a lifeline for the Tories. A petition has since been signed by more than 400,000 people, calling for the DUP and Tories to be stopped from forming a minority government. But a Number 10 spokesman said: "We can confirm that the Democratic U

Hillary Clinton claims to be a champion for the middle class. Laughable. Hillary Clinton also claims to be a champion for women. Extra, double super laughable. Why? Here's 5 reasons: 1. Hillary intimidated and suppressed any women who came forward with accusations against her husband while he was serving as President. To quote Political Insider , "Hillary ran a 'war room' to crack down on so called 'bimbo eruptions.' This was the name given to the countless stories of infidelity and sexual assaults committed by Bill Clinton over the years." Somehow I thought silencing women and being a voice for women were two different things? 2. She defended a child rapist, and laughed about it. Laughed. About. It. Or, in the words of the victim, " Hillary Clinton took me through hell." Sound like a champion of women's rights to you? 3. Hillary Clinton is a strong advocate for abortion . Have you heard of gendercide ? Abortion has been consistently shown to affect girl babies at significantly higher levels than boy babies. It's absolutely tragic. We're killing baby girls by the millions, and pro-woman Hillary supports it. 4. She doesn't believe women can afford their own birth control. Instead, she believes the government should force employers to provide contraceptive coverage of every kind, even if its against their deeply held religious beliefs . Don't worry about freedom sweethearts, let the taxpayer get the bill. 5. Hillary Clinton accepted millions of Dollars from countri

Political talk in America has reached new lows and it has become evident that our pundits and politicians are not having the right conversations. Ultimately, there are a handful of undeniable economic truths that need to be acknowledged, for the time being, until new information legitimately challenges it. In the meantime, however, the jury isn't out on these and it's time for the government to act accordingly. These are a few issues that should be put to rest. Free trade is excellent for the economy The fact is that this is not up for debate, but the idea that there are probably more major politicians on both sides of the isle that are protectionist is unnerving. The "democratic socialists" and the "right-wing nationalists" have it all wrong and elude settled conclusions with fear mongering. The left sees it as a wealth transfer to the top, where poor people suffer; while the right sees it as a drain on the middle class at the expense of foreign workers. Here's the reality. First, there is an overwhelming consensus in the economic community that free trade is vital to a prosperous economy. The IGM economic experts panel found that 90% of economists agree with free trade with China, 96% agreed that free trade improves productive efficiency and again, 98% agreed the US is better off with NAFTA than the trade laws prior. Adam Smith , Frederic Bastiat , Thomas Sowell and Paul Krugman - four economists from four different schools of thought - who reached their largest following i

Liberal commentators, both religious and secular, have cheered what they take as the recent comeuppance Catholic and other religious conservatives received in the sections of Evangelii Gaudium , the Pope's recent apostolic exhortation, that touch on market economics. While the cackling is partly unjustified, it is also partly justified. First, how it's unjustified: While there is a smattering of libertarians or, perhaps more accurately, near-libertarians among Catholic conservatives, my sense is that almost all Catholic writers and thinkers who are most self-conscious about their Catholicismparticularly those associated with this journalall are in principle fully reconciled with the notion of the social market economy. All would feel at home in, say, Germany's Christian Democratic Party. Indeed, I would suggest that most would feel more at home intellectually and politically in something akin to Germany's Christian Democracy Party than they do in today's Republican Party. Part of the reason this gets papered over in so much reporting and commentary is because of the ambiguity of what the phrase "free market" actually means. The phrase is often deployed as part of a dualism, as in "socialist versus free market" economies. While both have ideal types at the extremes, the terms are often used in relation to each other to describe economies that rely more on state-controlled production and distribution relative to market production and distribution, and economies that rely more o

A mber Rudd is out as home secretary. Sajid Javid is in. And with that an increasingly feeble Theresa May closes the book on the umpteenth accidental reshuffle of her strange and woeful premiership. Make no mistake: Rudd had to go. She may not have been the source of the Windrush scandal , in which Caribbean-born Brits who came here as children had their lives torn apart by demands for their papers, or else. She didn't cook up the 'hostile environment' policy that Theresa May implemented to such callous, calculated effect during her long tenure in the Home Office. No, Rudd did something far more pathetic, but no less damaging. Despite, reportedly, disagreeing with May's migration agenda, Rudd saw it as her job to carry it on. But then she took no responsibility when its injustices were revealed. First she blamed the foul treatment of Windrush migrants on Home Office officials, and then she (unwittingly, she claims) misled parliament about the existence of deportation targets. But now as the dust settles and Javid takes the keys to Marsham Street, we must resist seeing this purely through the lens of Westminster intrigue, to indulge in chatter about the Brexit balance in cabinet or the damage Rudd, a Remainer, might do to May's agenda from the backbenches. Instead we have to get to grips with the moral and political rot that this resignation and the Windrush scandal reveals. Because it runs deep. It speaks to the almost amoral, technocratic nature of modern politics that the f

The bill was introduced by Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero, D- Albuquerque, who said it was necessary to prevent discrimination against "Mexican-Americans." But Rep. Monica Youngblood, R-Albuquerque, said that if passed, the bill would place the state of New Mexico in danger of losing federal funding and prevents law enforcement officers from doing their jobs. The proposal would ban agencies from getting "federal funds, equipment, personnel or resources for the purpose of detecting or apprehending" such immigrants. It comes at a time when a number of New Mexico towns and cities have declared themselves "sanctuary cities" for immigrants who are living in the country illegally. There is also a legal question if such a bill is legal. The Constitution grants Sheriffs law enforcement authority which would be difficult for the state to control in such a manner. Also, federal law acts outside of State law. If the officers have special federal commission, then the State has little authority to direct how those officers conduct federal law enforcement.

Kathryn Moody : Investors, Are You Ready for the Next Global Crisis? Manuel Schiffres Mutual Fund Rankings, 2014 Meghan Streit : Pitching In When Caregivers Need Help Janet Bond Brill, Ph.D., R.D.N., F.A.N.D : How to prevent a second (and first) heart attack thru diet The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington : Caprese is a light, fresh salad; the perfect quick and easy accompaniment to any summer meal Mark Steyn : You Want Nazis? Jonathan Tobin : Care about the Jewish state's future? Obama, in interview, reveals even more reasons to worry Alan M. Dershowitz : Confirmed: Needless death and destruction in Gaza Katie Nielsen : As a mother, I'm all I need to be Cameron Huddleston : 18 Retailers That Offer Price Adjustments Nellie S. Huang : The Best Health Mutual Funds to Buy Now Brierly Wright, M.S., R.D. : Try these 'secret-weapon' foods to boost your changes of losing weight The Kosher Gourmet by Jessica Yadegaran : Take some relish in pickled goodies (5 recipes!) Kimberly Lankford : 50 Ways to Cut Your Health Care Costs James K. Glassman : Investors, Are You Ready for the Next Global Crisis? The Kosher Gourmet by Nick Malgieri : Chocolate molten delight with creme anglaise is a simple yet elegant make-ahead dessert The Texas Senate has passed a bill that protects state-funded foster care and adoption agencies that want to make decisions about child care and child placement based on "sincerely held religious beliefs." House Bill 3859, which passed the state Senate on Mon

No presidency in American history has been more vocal on the subject of "supporting our troops" than the Bush White House. The White House website identifies 357 separate documents containing the words "support our troops." But there seems to be a disturbing disconnect between the rhetoric of this White House and the reality of what they are actually willing to do on behalf of the men and women in uniform. That disconnect is clearly reflected by the president's opposition to legislation proposed by Sen. James Webb (D-VA) that would extend education benefits similar to those provided to the veterans of World War II to veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. Just six days after U.S. troops crossed the Kuwaiti border en route to Baghdad in 2003, the White House issued a press release stating, "President Bush will submit a wartime supplemental budget request to Congress that will ...support the men and women of our Armed Forces ..." The same day, the White House issued a second press release urging the American people to "Support Our Troops" by sending letters and care packages. A "Loyalty Day" proclamation issued in the president's name in April 2004 stated, "By supporting our troops and their families, citizens are making a difference in their communities and showing loyalty to our country through their patriotism." White House Press Aide Trent Duffy told the press in December 2004, "This president has been one of the strongest presidents in history for supporting our troops." In Jun

Kathryn Moody : Investors, Are You Ready for the Next Global Crisis? Manuel Schiffres Mutual Fund Rankings, 2014 Meghan Streit : Pitching In When Caregivers Need Help Janet Bond Brill, Ph.D., R.D.N., F.A.N.D : How to prevent a second (and first) heart attack thru diet The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington : Caprese is a light, fresh salad; the perfect quick and easy accompaniment to any summer meal Mark Steyn : You Want Nazis? Jonathan Tobin : Care about the Jewish state's future? Obama, in interview, reveals even more reasons to worry Alan M. Dershowitz : Confirmed: Needless death and destruction in Gaza Katie Nielsen : As a mother, I'm all I need to be Cameron Huddleston : 18 Retailers That Offer Price Adjustments Nellie S. Huang : The Best Health Mutual Funds to Buy Now Brierly Wright, M.S., R.D. : Try these 'secret-weapon' foods to boost your changes of losing weight The Kosher Gourmet by Jessica Yadegaran : Take some relish in pickled goodies (5 recipes!) Kimberly Lankford : 50 Ways to Cut Your Health Care Costs James K. Glassman : Investors, Are You Ready for the Next Global Crisis? The Kosher Gourmet by Nick Malgieri : Chocolate molten delight with creme anglaise is a simple yet elegant make-ahead dessert Roseanne Barr lost her new television show. Barr, in a tweet about Barack Obama aide Valerie Jarrett, said of Jarrett: "muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj." The comedian deleted the offensive tweet, but the damage was irreversible. The reac

NEARLY 2,000 students from University of California campuses--including Berkeley, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Riverside, Irvine and San Diego--converged on UCLA's campus November 19 to confront the UC Board of Regents as it voted to increase tuition by 32 percent next school year. Several hundred students surrounded the Regents' meeting, chanting, "UC Regents, I see racists!" and "Lay off Yudof," referring to UC President Mark Yudof. Workers and students disrupted the meeting, and 14 people were arrested, as large numbers of police lined up to defend the Regents. California Highway Patrol officers were even brought on campus for crowd control. Three Black students were reportedly Tasered in altercations with campus police. After the Regents voted for the fee hike, students held a die-in, blocking the busy intersection of Wilshire and Westwood for several minutes. But protests began earlier in the day, even before the sun came up, when around 30 students occupied Campbell Hall with a banner reading, "In solidarity with university occupations everywhere." Student protesters at UCLA have faced tear gas, tasers and arrests The action came in the middle of a three-day system-wide protest, anchored around a strike by members of the University Professional and Technical Employees union at UCLA and UC Berkeley, which was supported by Coalition of University Employees union members and others. On Wednesday, around 500 students, faculty and staff blockaded the main entrance

Trump's lie about Palestinians learning "hatred from a very young age" cannot simply be disregarded as just another one of his many falsehoods. A lot has been said and written about President Donald Trump's meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and how the former refused to support the "two-state solution" - to the Israel-Palestine conflict - in order to appease the latter . However, not a lot of attention was paid to a vicious lie the American president uttered while disparaging Palestinians. President Trump: Palestinians have to "get rid of some of that hate that they're taught from a very young age" https://t.co/I8Yarb1eR4 -- CNN (@CNN) February 15, 2017 "I think the Palestinians have to get rid of some of that hate that they're taught from a very young age," Trump said. "They're taught tremendous hate. I've seen what they're taught. And you can talk about flexibility there too, but it starts at a very young age and it starts in the school room. And they have to acknowledge Israel -- they're going to have to do that." Now, everybody knows Trump lies all the time. In fact, at one point during his presidential campaign he was lying 87 times in just five hours . But this particular lie about Palestinians learning "hatred from a very young age" is not something that can simply be disregarded as just another one of Trump's many falsehoods. No. The U.S. president must be called out over this vitriolic attack against a population that is already quite misunder

- Advertisement - Who will become the next chair of the Democratic National Committee? This leadership contest has significant implications for the future of American politics. The choice will help determine how the Democratic party responds to its extraordinary defeats in recent years, ending with the election of Donald Trump. You might think this overwhelming drubbing would cause the Democratic party to reorganize itself into a very different party from the one it's become -- which is essentially a giant fundraising machine, too often reflecting the goals and values of the moneyed interests that make up the bulk of its funding. Don't bet on it. For one thing, many vested interests don't want the Democratic party to change. Most of the money it raises ends up in the pockets of political consultants, pollsters, strategists, lawyers, advertising consultants and advertisers themselves, many of whom have become rich off the current arrangement. They naturally want to keep it. - Advertisement - For another, the Democratic party apparatus is ingrown and entrenched. Like any old bureaucracy, it only knows how to do what it has done for years. Its state and quadrennial national conventions are opportunities for insiders to meet old friends and for aspiring politicians to make contacts among the rich and powerful. Insiders and the rich aren't going to happily relinquish their power and perquisites, and hand them to outsiders and the non-rich. Most Americans who call themselves Democr

Ari Melber covered a topic that would be getting national attention, were it not for the frenetic 24/7 news cycle coming out of the Trump administration. Just after Mike Pompeo stepped down from CIA, Trump declared that he was promoting Gina Haspel to run the CIA, touting her as a great choice. Well, many Americans have a different opinion. Both Democrats and Republicans have reservations leading back to Haspel's past history as the person who had oversight over a CIA "black site" in Thailand. While an open investigation into torture was underway, evidence was destroyed. Haspel claims to not have given the order for tapes to be destroyed, though. Ari Melber discussed this in an extensive segment on his nightly show, The Beat , on Tuesday night. It was hard hitting, deep dive into what Haspel's confirmation could mean for our country, as well as how we would be viewed by the world. Here is a bit of what Ari had to say: Even hardened CIA officials were reduced to tears after seeing what was done at the base that Haspel ran and claiming that "torture is not torture, it was enhanced interrogation". There was even a conservative radio host who famously touted a plan to undergo waterboarding, to say that it wasn't torture, and that didn't go as planned when he lasted about 10 seconds. Barack Obama ran against torture in 2008, he reissued the bans against the techniques that bush used on his first day in office. (Obama clip) We have to be clear and unequivocal, we do not torture. pe

So, we're in hot water with North Korea, the GOP is trying to pass a tax plan that hurts everyone except the precious one percent, and climate change is completely out of control, but what is President Donald Trump whining about on Twitter? Trump Has A Sad He's upset because the father of one of the three basketballers arrested for shoplifting in China didn't thank him enough for helping to get his son released, Mediaite reports. LaVar Ball didn't grovel, so now he thinks he should have left LiAngelo Ball in prison. And said so in a tweet. Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal. I should have left them in jail! -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2017 Trump's whiny tweet as preceded by this tweet by Trump sycophant Dan Scavino Jr. Wannabe @Lakers coach, BIG MOUTH @Lavarbigballer knows if it weren't for President @realDonaldTrump , his son would be in China for a long, long, long time! #FACT https://t.co/j2GcY7F4f9 -- Dan Scavino Jr. (@DanScavino) November 18, 2017 Cue Twitter users to tap-dance all over Trump's stupidity. Indeed, some users couldn't resist commenting on just that: LaVar Ball vs. Donald Trump is the epic clash of the intellectual titans America deserves. -- Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) November 19, 2017 While at least one person brought in a historical perspective: 11/19/1863- Lincoln gives

ABC News' "This Week" is reporting that nearly 200 black women, including activists, religious leaders, academics, and local elected officials, signed a letter Tuesday blasting Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi for failing to protect Rep. Maxine Waters from attacks from Trump and the GOP. Nearly 200 black female leaders and allies blast Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer for their "failure" to protect Rep. Maxine Waters from "unwarranted attacks from the Trump administration and others in the GOP" https://t.co/nbKnoTiPlj pic.twitter.com/Udse7xvyLl -- This Week (@ThisWeekABC) July 5, 2018 The letter comes after Waters herself slammed Schumer and Pelosi on MSNBC's "AM Joy," calling them self-serving politicians who would "do anything" to protect their power. It seems neither Pelosi nor Schumer would come to Waters' defense after she called for members of the Trump administration to be harassed : "If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere," she told a small crowd in June. Just look at these attacks! Schumer: "No one should call for the harassment of political opponents. That's not right. That's not American." -- Jenna Lifhits (@jlifhits) June 25, 2018 In the crucial months ahead, we must strive to make America beautiful again. Trump's daily lack of civility has provoked responses that are predictable bu

El Rushbo suggested a new, more honest campaign slogan for Obama: "I've got the power to take what you've got." (FREE audio:) Limbaugh added, "Obama isn't redistributing his own money. He's redistributing yours." Rush took a call from a former Democrat who had challenged himself to "listen to the other side," tuned into Limbaugh's show and experienced political enlightenment! Limbaugh responded, "While I'm flattered, and while you think you are agreeing with me, what you're really agreeing with is reality. You finally have found reality. My ideas are nothing unique. I just live in the real world. I'm the mayor of Realville." MICHAEL SAVAGE In the aftermath of the brutality unleashed by Muslims in Libya and elsewhere, Michael Savage issued a pessimistic response. (FREE audio:) The Obama administration, he told listeners, "wanted to bring democracy to an area that isn't ready for it, to a region that will never ever have a democracy." "Democracy is not easy to achieve," Savage continued. "The people need to have a basis for their democracy. Fortunately for us, the people who founded America had a basis for their republic in the Christian Bible, which taught them compassion, constraint and other values that were necessary for a republic to arise out of the ashes of a revolution. Those in the Middle East don't have such a document. They have a document that is very different. Read it and you'll find out what I'm talking about." As the situation in the Middle East and beyond deter

Last October, I analyzed how record immigration is creating a permanent Democrat majority. Today, my friend Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, published an insightful breakdown of immigration numbers from the most recent Census data, which further portends electoral doom for conservatives. Immigration, like most other things in life, is good in moderation. That has always been our guiding principle, even during the most expansionist periods of our history -- a point I plan to elaborate on further in my upcoming book. What is happening today however, the mass influx of immigrants predominantly from third world countries, is something we've never seen in our nation's history. As a way of quantifying the magnitude of this great wave of immigration, Camarota tallied the Census data of the immigrant population and their American-born children under the age of 18. Focusing just on the raw number of immigrants often overlooks the broader effect of mass migration, especially resulting from immigrants with high birth rates . He found that there are now 61 million immigrants living in America, including those minor children. Camarota's best estimate is that 15.7 million of them are illegal immigrants and minor children born in the U.S. to at least one illegal immigrant parent. This is unprecedented in our history. As late as 1970, just 13.5 million immigrants (including their minor children) were living here, representing just 6.6% of the population. Now im

This morning as I got caught up on all the buzz from my colleagues at CPAC I stumbled across a tweet from writer and Professional Jerkface (I think that's the official title, I'll look it up later) Tommy Christopher from CPAC. He was commenting on the introduction of Mark Levin and Ted Cruz for their joint CPAC panel, happening as he was tweeting. Dipped into #CPAC2017 live for literally 5 seconds and was greeted by casual homophobia from @SenTedCruz and @marklevinshow . So pitiful. pic.twitter.com/dIL7GC5qpa -- Xtopher Go Bragh (@tommyxtopher) February 23, 2017 Naturally I was curious. After the Milo debacle I thought perhaps one of them had made a snide comment about homosexuals or used a slur. I found it hard to believe (these are professional public speakers, after all) but Tommy's tweet was so filled with disappointment and outrage I had to know. I clicked on the clip. I actually had to watch it twice, as I was sure I'd missed the offending portion the first time. Nope. The "pitiful" homophobia Christopher is referring to is a small jab by Mark Levin towards Cruz about trying to hold his hand on the way out and Cruz perhaps not liking that, to the audience's amusement. Just last night on a podcast I was listening to the hosts were talking about the inherent homophobia of the hit 90's show "Friends" because the men often made comments and jokes about intimacy between men, in the context that it weirded them out. Brandon Morse The discussion of homosexuality in America has

by John Pilger The "Son of Africa" in the White House has fired the starter pistol in the next great foreign predation of the continent. "The de facto conquest of Libya by the US and its imperial partners heralds a modern version of the 'scramble for Africa' at the end of the 19th century." China has been drafted as the necessary enemy of U.S. imperial aims. AFRICOM will likely soon find a home on the continent. "Libya, and now Uganda, South Sudan and Congo, provide the main chance" for a permanent AFRICOM address. This article previously appeared on JohnPilger.com " China is replacing al-Qaeda as the official American 'threat.'" On 14 October, President Barack Obama announced he was sending United States special forces troops to Uganda to join the civil war there. In the next few months, US combat troops will be sent to South Sudan, Congo and Central African Republic. They will only "engage" for "self-defense", says Obama, satirically. With Libya secured, an American invasion of the African continent is under way. Obama's decision is described in the press as "highly unusual" and "surprising," even "weird." It is none of these things. It is the logic of American foreign policy since 1945. Take Vietnam. The priority was to halt the influence of China, an imperial rival, and "protect" Indonesia, which President Nixon called "the region's richest hoard of natural resources, the greatest prize." Vietnam merely got in the way; and the slaughter of more than three million Vietname

EarlG (15,929 posts) Pic Of The Moment: Most Republicans Say They Couldn't Live Off Minimum Wage, But... Thu Jul 24, 2014, 12:25 PM 1. Not surprised, but what's with the 5% of Democrats who could not live on it, but still don't support raising it???? The Republicans, I can excuse because they are asses. Thu Jul 24, 2014, 12:27 PM geardaddy (20,759 posts) 2. I think you mean 25% of Dems I'm guessing DINOs don't support a living wage hike. Thu Jul 24, 2014, 12:35 PM 5. Well, there is that..... but what I see is 80% who think that they could not live on minimum wage, and only 75% who want to increase it. That leaves 5% who are making no sense at all. Thu Jul 24, 2014, 12:47 PM 7. because they don't think that *they* will ever make minimum wage and don't really care about how other people make it Thu Jul 24, 2014, 09:12 PM nomorenomore08 (13,324 posts) 23. Goes to show, conservatives are assholes. Conservative Dems included. Thu Jul 24, 2014, 02:00 PM haele (8,917 posts) 12. Minimum wage is supposed to be for part-time and teens, donchaknow? Sort of like interning, or maybe as some sort of allowance - basically compensation for unskilled, non-critical chore or project that you couldn't find a friend to volunteer to do and figured you would need to pay your kids an allowance if you wanted it done. No one is supposed to live off a minimum wage. That's what Liebritarians and Republicants say all the time. No responsible person who needs to pay rent or support a family works for mini

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- As the sun rises on tilled soil on the outskirts of Fresno, Calif., Mori Vance bends to pick black eyed peas, then disappears among towering okra bushes. Vance, who is African-American, is harvesting her first crop with several other novice black farmers, all hoping to make it their life's work. The African American Farmers of California started the 15-acre demonstration farm to teach about growing and eating healthy food and to get African-American kids interested in agriculture. The project is part of a nationwide effort to revive the pride of black farmers and reverse the decline of black-owned farms. In Milwaukee, Atlanta and Chicago, black-run nonprofit organizations are providing African-Americans with land to farm, conducting workshops in agriculture and training youth in gardening. "A lot of black people, their grandparents were farmers, but they were forced out of agriculture. We're trying to help them easily re-enter into it," said Will Scott, president of the California farmers group. "The goal is that they eventually become self-sufficient." The challenge is great because farming carries negative connotations for many African-Americans due to the legacies of slavery, sharecropping and recent discriminatory government policies. "Black farmers were the backbone of American agriculture," said John Boyd, president of the National Black Farmers Association. "We went from being slaves to sharecroppers. Black farmers left farming because they didn'

The Message of the "People's Pope": Subservience to a System of Genocide and Oppression September 14, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us On September 22, Pope Francis will visit the U.S. He is being branded the "People's Pope" for giving up some of the traditional ceremonial trappings of the position. He is acclaimed for expressions of concern over extreme abuses of capitalism, and sympathy for the poor in a world of extreme and savage inequality. But the essential message of this pope, like every pope before him, is subservience. Subservience to a world order of genocide and oppression of whole peoples. Acceptance of a world built on exploitation enforced with violence. Submission to the most obscene degradation of women as less than human. And the pope condemns and opposes any attempt to seriously stand up against the suffering produced by a global system of oppression. Blessing Genocide While in the U.S., the pope will declare Junipero Serra a "saint." Junipero Serra was a Spanish Catholic priest during the time when colonialism was carrying out the physical and cultural genocide of the indigenous peoples of the Americas--enslaving them in the mines of South America and the "missions" of the West Coast of what is now the U.S. It was in large part on that basis--extracting incredible wealth from the land, on the bones and blood of millions of indigenous people--that capitalism rose to dominate the world. Junipero Serra did not oppose that genocide; he was a major figur

Michele Bachmann's presidential campaign is firing at Mitt Romney, over his refusal to sign a stringent pro-life pledge from a conservative group. On Saturday, Romney wrote on National Review that he would not sign the pro-life pledge from the Susan B. Anthony List (which supports pro-life candidates for Congress, in something of a counter-weight EMILY's List), on the grounds that its pledge to defund all "contractors and recipients of federal funds with affiliates that perform or fund abortions" went too far, and would cut off funding to many hospitals. "As much as I share the goals of the Susan B. Anthony List, its well-meaning pledge is overly broad and would have unintended consequences," Romney wrote. "That is why I could not sign it. It is one thing to end federal funding for an organization like Planned Parenthood; it is entirely another to end all federal funding for thousands of hospitals across America. That is precisely what the pledge would demand and require of a president who signed it." The Bachmann campaign then pounced -- linking Romney's stance on the pledge to his original pro-choice positions -- with spokeswoman Alice Stewart saying in a statement, in part: "It is distressing that Governor Romney refuses to sign the SBA Pledge, even while claiming to be pro-life. The excuses for not signing clearly continue the doubts about his leadership and commitment to ending the practice of abortion - particularly for a candidate who ran as pro-choice for the Senate a

JUAN GONZALEZ : A new book by award-winning journalist Linda Diebel provides an in-depth account of Ochoa's murder and the cover-up that followed. It's called: Betrayed: The Assassination of Digna Ochoa . Linda Diebel is a former Washington bureau chief for the Toronto Star . For many years, she was a Latin America correspondent based in Mexico City. She's a three-time recipient of the Amnesty International Media Award. We're also joined by Kerry Kennedy. She is the founder and former Executive Director of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights. She's also the author of the book, Speak Truth to Power: Human Rights Defenders Who Are Changing Our World. She devoted a chapter in her book to Digna Ochoa. Welcome to both of you. LINDA DIEBEL : Thank you. KERRY KENNEDY : Thank you. JUAN GONZALEZ : Linda, I'd like for you to start. You became involved -- you met Digna Ochoa when you were in Mexico City for the Toronto Star , and you became involved in your own investigation of what happened to her. Could you talk a little bit about why you decided to write the book and what propelled you to continue this investigation, even after the Mexico City government has closed it down essentially? LINDA DIEBEL : Yes. I did become involved with Digna after I went to Mexico City. She was a very scrappy lawyer. And she took cases very personally. And one of the first stories I did involving the death and torture of two young men, 17 and 21, in Veracruz, had been her case, and the

Author`s name Dmitry Sudakov 28 Sep 2017 at 18:39 Russian priest says Hugh Hefner is burning in hell Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, former deputy chairman of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, commented on the death of the founder of Playboy magazine Hugh Hefner. According to Chaplin, Hefner's magazine shows an extremely negative influence on the Russian cultural landscape. "The magazine and its advertising propagate fornication. Its ideology contradicts to the values that we need today - chastity and matrimonial fidelity," the clergyman said in a comment with Ura.ru. Chaplin suggested Russia should get rid of Playboy magazine and eradicate any forms of subculture that romanticize fornication. The archpriest also said that Hugh Hefner is burning in hell now. "After his death, Hefner went straight to hell, because he has never known what true Christian faith is. All who do not have faith are outside the kingdom of God, and their fate is absolutely clear," the priest said, without exposing his insider source of information. Hugh Hefner, who passed away at age 91, always positioned himself as a convinced atheist. He was convinced that religion is a myth. "It's perfectly clear to me that religion is a myth. It's something we have invented to explain the inexplicable... What does it all mean - if it has any meaning at all? But how can it all exist if it doesn't have some kind of meaning? I think anyone who suggests that they have the ans

RUSH LIMBAUGH (HOST): I think the mayor of Charlottesville took a page out of the book from the mayor from Baltimore. What was her name? Forget her name. Remember she said -- what was her phrase? "Give them space. Give them room so that they can get it out of their system. Give them space." Look, the police were ordered to stand down in Charlottesville. Somebody wanted that to happen, folks. The police were told to stand down, the police are saying, "no, no, no, we were retreating to go get our riot gear." Well, why didn't you show up in riot gear? If you retreated to get the riot gear, why didn't you come back with the riot gear on if that's where you went? They were ordered to stand down. I'll tell you something else, people -- I think all of this is organized, folks. I think Terry McAuliffe, in fact, was trying to use this whole episode to launch his presidential bid, and he botched it because he doesn't have that big ability to get noticed. This is a pretty big deal, this is what Democrats do. This is what Clinton, the Oklahoma City bombing, launched the rebirth of his presidency, which is exactly -- the Democrats see a crisis and find out how they can benefit from it, while making people think they're trying to fix it or solve it, and I think McAuliffe was doing the same thing. I think -- remember Rahm Emanuel, "a crisis is a terrible thing to waste." I think, not so much there are people that wanted this to happen, but knew it was going to, and so let's see if we can mi

President Barack Obama said in a recent interview that he hoped gun control will be a major issue in the 2016 election and regrets that he was unable "to capture this moment" of the Sandy Hook shooting to pass more restrictive laws. GQ published an interview with Obama Tuesday conducted by Bill Simmons, co-creator of ESPN's "30 for 30" sports documentary series and author of "The Book of Basketball" who currently creating his own show for HBO. Simmons referred to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton stumping on gun control and said during the interview, "It does feel like it's going to become the dominant issue of year eight." "I hope so," the president responded. "We have this weird habit in this culture of mourning and, you know, 48, 72 hours of wall-to-wall coverage, and then...suddenly we move on. And I will do everything I can to make sure that there's a sustained attention paid to this thing." AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis Obama said that he had believed new restrictions would be doable after the Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, where a gunman murdered 20 elementary school children. "I went up and visited with those families and -- you know, Bill, you've still got small kid," Obama said. "These are six-year-olds, right? And you have 20 of them who've been massacred. Right away, our focus had to shift to 'Is there a way for us to capture this moment to see if we can get over this incredible hump to try to put in place some common-sense gun-

Did a prayer from House chaplain and Jesuit priest Patrick Conroy prompt a demand for resignation from Speaker Paul Ryan? Or did complaints over a lack of pastoral care build up to the breaking point? The answer depends on who one asks, but Fr. Conroy insists he hasn't been told why Ryan asked for his resignation: The chaplain of the House said on Thursday that he was blindsided when Speaker Paul D. Ryan asked him to resign two weeks ago, a request that he complied with but was never given a reason for. The sudden resignation of the chaplain, the Rev. Patrick J. Conroy, shocked members of both parties. He had served in the role since he was nominated in 2011 by Speaker John A. Boehner, a fellow Catholic. In an interview, Father Conroy was categorical: His departure was not voluntary. "I was asked to resign, that is clear," Father Conroy said. As for why, he added, "that is unclear." "I certainly wasn't given anything in writing," he said. "Catholic members on both sides are furious." That much does appear clear. Ryan will get a letter sometime today from a bipartisan group of House members, mainly Catholics, who warn that the abrupt termination of Conroy might not just unfairly damage his reputation but the House's as well: "The sensitive nature of this situation requires a description of the process followed to arrive at the decision and a justification for that decision," wrote the letter's author, Virginia Democratic Rep. Gerald E. Connolly. Without such information questi

President Donald Trump took a big step on Monday to begin correcting abuses of the Antiquities Act. The president acted on his April 26 executive order to review national monument designations under the Act since 1996, making his announcement in Utah, which has been the subject of sweeping national monument designations through the Antiquities Act. The president announced reductions to two national monuments in southern Utah to make these designations consistent with the law. Bears Ears National Monument, designated by President Barack Obama in 2016 less than a month before Trump took office, is being reduced by over 80 percent--from 1.5 million acres to 228,784 acres. The remaining 1.3 million acres will be restored to the previous land management plans under the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management land. In addition, the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, designated by President Bill Clinton in 1996, is being reduced by about 45 percent and separated into three units. The purpose of the Antiquities Act is in the name--to protect antiquities, or artifacts such as fossils or Native American ruins on federal lands. In 1906, Congress gave the president the power to designate federal lands as national monuments. According to the law, these lands must constitute " the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected ." But the Act has been abused by presidents from both parties, particularly so in the last several d

Last week, in an extraordinarily rare moment of bipartisanship, House Republican and Democratic leaders reached an agreement on two big issues: An imment payment cut to Medicare providers and the looming expiration of a program for children's health insurance. The deal is a quintessential compromise: Democrats get some of what they want, Republicans get some of what they want and everyone ends up a little upset. But despite the agreement in the House, Senate Democrats are threatening to blow it up--a move that threatens to make Democrats the new "party of no." The problem House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi are trying to solve began all the way back in 1997, when Congress passed a law to rein in Medicare payments using a new funding formula, the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR). The goal was to hold down costs but it quickly began to require huge payments cuts to Medicare providers each year, cuts so large that doctors would exit the program. Since 2000, Congress has passed a so-called "doc fix" to prevent those cuts from happening, thus costing the federal government billions of dollars. This is obviously a myopic approach to controlling health care costs. But if Congress passed a permanent fix, it would cost a lot more money--much better to just address the issue on an annual basis, when the costs look smaller. 1 This year, Congress decided to be proactive and find a long-term solution. Boehner and Pelosi reached an agreement to eliminate the huge cuts

French President Macron urges Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a Paris meeting to "make courageous gestures" by freezing Israeli settlement building in the occupied territories. French President Emmanuel Macron and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prior to a meeting focusing on Jerusalem, bilateral ties, Iran, and the Middle East peace process at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France. December 10, 2017. ( Reuters ) French President Emmanuel Macron and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walked away on Sunday without reaching common ground on the issue of Jerusalem. The talks took place in Paris after US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise the ancient city as Israel's capital triggered Palestinian and global outrage. Netanyahu was in Paris ahead of a meeting with EU foreign ministers on Monday where they will try to present a unified front after Trump's move. Macron told Netanyahu he needed to make peaceful overtures to enable to break the impasse between Israel and Palestine. While condemning all acts of terrorism against Israel, Macron said that he told Netanyahu he was against Trump's decision, which was a "dangerous threat to peace." "I asked Prime Minister Netanyahu to make some courageous gestures towards the Palestinians to get out of the current impasse," he said, suggesting that a freeze of illegal Israeli settlement construction could be a first step. He reaffirmed that France believed that a two-state solution was the only vi

San Francisco Police Officer C. Stokes, right, takes a report from Danielle Castro, seated center, who said she was battered by an employee of Toad Hall as he was trying to close the door to the bar (Source:Rick Gerharter) A rally in the Castro to affirm and celebrate black LGBTQs briefly turned ugly when some of the demonstrators went to a bar and said they were met with hostility. Organizers with Queer #BlackLivesMatter held the February 28 rally to mark the end of Black History Month and call attention to violence against trans women of color. One of those women, Taja DeJesus, was stabbed to death in San Francisco's Bayview neighborhood last month. Participants in the Queer #BlackLivesMatter rally gathered at Jane Warner Plaza; later some of them went to Toad Hall bar. Photo: Khaled Sayed The rally, which started at Jane Warner Plaza at Castro and Market streets at 2 p.m., was mostly peaceful, and the crowd enjoyed music by Bayard Rustin Coalition members and a performance by drag queen Bebe Sweetbriar. Afterward, some of the participants decided to pay a visit to Toad Hall bar, 4146 18th Street. They said they were met with hostility and were asked to leave. A similar experience occurred there in December during a Queer #BlackLivesMatter rally. "We demonstrated in front of Toad Hall for 10 minutes, until one of the establishment employees allegedly assaulted one of our trans participants," said Bayard Rustin Coalition member Shaun Haines. The victim of the alleged assaul

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com China claims that 60 countries support its South China Sea policy China cites UNCLOS in disagreement with Japan South China Sea: Which countries are on China's side? Cognitive dissonance and doubling down in China China claims that 60 countries support its South China Sea policy China's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hua Chunying Any day now, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, a United Nations international court in the Hague, is supposed to issue a ruling on a case brought by the Philippines against China on the merits of China's claims to the entire South China Sea. The case is brought under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which China claims does not apply to them. China always says that its claims "are indisputable," and this is clearly a lie, since the claims are widely disputed. In fact, China's claims are at least delusional, and may even be fabricated, as we reported a few days ago. ( "22-Jun-16 World View -- China's 'ironclad proof' of South China Sea claims revealed as hoax" ) Not only is China delusional about some of their evidence, it now appears that they are also delusional about the kind of support they are getting from the international community. Even though the Court's ruling would be little more than symbolic, and even though there would be no way to enforce the Court's ruling against China, and even though China has already said that it will ignore any ruling, and even th

Ultra Music Festival's 20th edition hasn't even wrapped up, and the festival has already quietly announced the dates for its 2019 event. The dance music festival will be returning March 29, 30, and 31, 2019, at Bayfront Park -- that's according to the festival guides handed out to attendees Friday. Ultra's return to the downtown public space will be a relief to partygoers who enjoy the urban backdrop that sets Ultra apart from most major American music festivals, which usually take place in less densely populated areas. Related Stories If you like this story, consider signing up for our email newsletters. You have successfully signed up for your selected newsletter(s) - please keep an eye on your mailbox, we're movin' in! Organizers have been working overtime to showcase the festival off as an asset to the city. On Friday, it hosted city of Miami Commissioner Ken Russell, whose district encompasses Bayfront Park. While downtown residents still consider music festivals a disturbance, effectively driving out Rolling Loud out of the park to its new home at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens , they seem to be willing to compromise. The Downtown Neighbors Alliance is pushing the Bayfront Park Management Trust to double what it charges Ultra to use the park to $2.5 million, according to the Miami Herald . DNA hopes that by increasing the fee, the trust, which depends on Ultra to fund its maintenance budget, won't need to book as many events at the park. That would mean fewer distur

There have been 201 incidents of firearms being discharged on school grounds since January of 2013, according to new findings from Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense. The findings also highlighted an issue that is often overlooked in the national conversation about school shootings: 39 percent of non-shooter victims of gun violence on school campuses are black, even though African Americans only make up 13 percent of the population. Meanwhile, 45 percent of non-shooter victims were white and 10 percent were non-white Latino victims. To collect the data for this school shootings index, the two organizations tracked gun homicides, assaultive injuries, unintentional injuries, and suicides and attempted suicides. Almost half of these incidents happened on a university or college campus, while 31 percent took place on a high school campus and 13 percent happened on an elementary school campus. Of the black victims of shootings on school campuses, 36 percent were homicides, 51 percent were injured, and 6 percent were unintentionally shot and injured in the line of fire. The majority of the 12 Latino victims were homicides. When looking at suicides, three black students and two Latino students shot and killed themselves and one Latino student killed himself after killing one person and injuring another with a firearm. Looking at gun violence regardless of location, the data looks even worse. In 2010, 45 percent of child gun deaths and 46 percent of gun inj

Writer May 31, 2017 A Kuwait-based media company has released a public service announcement-type ad urging Muslims to practice "love, not terror," during Ramadan, Conservative Review reported. Zain Group posted the clip on YouTube last Friday, the first day of the Muslim holy month. Since then, it has amassed more than 3.5 million views. The video, which features real footage from terror attacks in the Middle East, is meant to discourage potential jihadists from killing innocent people in the name of Islam. Over the past few days alone, hundreds have been killed following calls for violence during Ramadan from terror groups like ISIS. On Tuesday evening, a suicide bomber killed more than 80 people and injured hundreds more in Kabul, Afghanistan. ISIS claimed responsibility for the Kabul attack, as well as recent attacks in Baghdad and Cairo, Egypt . In the new Zain video, a would-be suicide bomber is confronted by victims of terror attacks, who repeatedly chant, "Allahu Akhbar" -- the phrase commonly recited by Islamic jihadists -- to remind him that "God is greater" than evil carried out in the name of religion. "I bear witness that there is no God but Allah," the potential suicide bomber tells a crowd of would-be victims. After this, however, an older man refutes his invocation with this response: "You who comes in the name of death, He is the creator of life." The video by Zain encourages faithful Muslims to "worship your God with love, with love not terror" and "con

Thursday, October 16th, 2014 Endangered Gray Wolf Pursued, Shot by Farmer in Eastern Washington The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is investigating a farmer after the shooting of an endangered gray wolf in eastern Washington. According to AP , the farmer "pursued the animal for several miles in his vehicle after seeing it near his farm," meaning that the wolf posed no significant danger. Wolf hunts have been institutionalized in northern states like Idaho, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Montana after the gray wolf was delisted from the endangered species list in 2009. Facebook pages dedicated to wolf hunting have evidenced a sadistic pleasure that many hunters derive from killing wolves. The effect of the official wolf hunts has been to normalize killing wolves to the extent that states without wolf hunts, like Washington, Missouri, and even Illinois , where the wolf is protected, have seen more shootings of wolves. Last August, the first gray wolf seen in Kentucky in 150 years was shot out of hand. As well as the increased fervor behind slaughtering wolves, it is possible that wolf shootings are on the rise, because the wolf hunts are pushing wolves out of places like Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota, leading to an increase of wolf shootings in places that normally do not see wolves at all. The other factor is impunity. In recent years, those who have shot wolves in areas where those wolves are protected have claimed that they thought the wolf was a coyote, because t

The liberal media were in sour moods Monday after the White House released its plan to address school safety and gun control. Journalists on the evening newscasts were upset that the plan didn't have the sweeping and constitutionally-questionable actions they were desperately hoping for, which also had them singing President Trump's praises just two weeks ago. " And at the White House tonight, President Trump revealing his plan for gun safety, and critics are now asking about a promise he made that is not in the proposal, " announced ABC's sensationalist anchor, David Muir on World News Tonight . The report was headed up by Chief White House Correspondent Jon Karl who was in a somber mood through the entire report. " Less than two weeks ago, President Trump boldly declared he's not afraid to take on the NRA, " he said before asserting that Trump had " caved entirely to the gun lobby on school safety. " Karl complained that Trump's proposals didn't have any solid action for employing age restrictions for purchasing certain types of firearms, most notably the AR-15. " Parkland survivor Sam Zeif had pleaded directly to the President for the age increase, " he recalled of Trump's listening sessions at the White House. But he failed in his duty to report that Zeif's argument was partially based on a fake news story that went viral with the help of a CNN anchor . The ABC reporter painted the situation as the President being seemingly tainted by the National Rifle Association after

'Annabelle: Creation' News, Release Date: New Clips Show How Disturbing the Prequel Is Free sign up cp newsletter! By Vianne Ilagan , Christian Post Contributor | Aug 9, 2017 2:40 AM Facebook/AnnabelleMovie A promotional photo for the upcoming movie "Annabelle: Creation." After the release of the first full trailer for "Annabelle: Creation," two more short clips from the movie made their way online, bringing viewers back to the origins of the franchise. Just like the trailer, the new clips seem to confirm that the upcoming prequel is going to be a lot more frightening than the original movie. The full trailer showed that the new movie is set years after the tragic passing of a doll maker's young daughter. In the video, the doll maker and his wife open their home to a nun and some girls from an orphanage. Unfortunately, he is Annabelle's creator, and they are going to be the possessed doll's next target. In the trailer, the doll maker is shown creating several Annabelle dolls, the first in the series being the possessed one. One major revelation from this video is that the evil spirit who took hold of Annabelle actually asked the doll maker and his wife's permission first before doing so. Since the couple want to bring their dead daughter back to life, they let the demon possess the doll, thinking it was the spirit of their daughter. As if the first full trailer was not enough, Warner Bros. once again dropped two new clips from "Annabelle: Creation" to add to the scare. The

President Donald Trump's Religious Right backers have been attempting to pervert the constitutional amendment that guarantees freedom of religion into what they believe should be "religious freedom." In short, they assert that the First Amendment should allow freedom to express one's religion (by which they really mean evangelical Christianity), even if it means openly violating the principle of separation of church and state. One pro-Trump Christian group even went so far as to establish a "hotline" where people can report instances where others have tried to stop them from openly practicing their religion. The Family Research Council, a Religious Right non-profit group that has been cheerleading morally deficient playboy Donald Trump's presidency, put out a press release praising the current administration's recent actions to advance "religious freedom." Wrote the group's president Tony Perkins in the press release , "After eight years of the federal government's relentless assault on the First Amendment, the Trump administration has taken concrete steps today that will once again erect a bulwark of protection around American's First Freedom - religious freedom." He added, "Under the Obama administration, agencies lost the understanding that religious freedoms extend to the public square, not just one's place of worship. As a result, our own government began threatening hardworking, patriotic Americans with crushing fines for simply seeking to live their lives according to

By Avanti Durani and Neha Sinha About 51 percent of people in Delhi, India's capital city, feel that crime is a serious problem in their neighbourhood, according to a recent survey titled Safety Trends and Reporting of Crime (SATARC). The percentages were lower in Mumbai (16 percent), Chennai (5 percent) and Bengaluru (21 percent). The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) provides information on crime recorded by the police but there is no data source to gauge if people perceive their neighbourhoods to be safe or not. To gather this data, IDFC Institute conducted a survey of 20,597 households across Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai. Representational image. Reuters This second and final article, in a two-part series on crime and safety in India ( the first part is here ) based on this survey, looks at households' perceptions of safety in the four cities and behavioural changes they may have adopted to keep themselves safe. Respondents were also asked if they had been victims of any crime in the past year and about their views on the police. As a result of their poor sense of safety, 87 percent of people in Delhi start worrying by 9 pm if a female member of the household is out alone. The percentages for other cities, for the same time of the night, are 54 percent in Bengaluru, 48 percent in Chennai and 30 percent in Mumbai. Women alone, Mumbai worries the least at night In Delhi, only one percent of respondents said they do not worry if a female member of the household is

WASHINGTON--A new survey says most Americans are in favor of school choice programs--but don't necessarily understand them. After interviewing more than 1,000 U.S. citizens, EdChoice found that nearly half favored having charter schools in their districts, but another 30 percent had never even heard of them. Additionally, the public was twice as likely to support voucher programs as oppose them, but an estimated 41 percent of respondents were initially unfamiliar or unsure about school vouchers. "A lot of my clients are ready to launch into 'let's have a discussion about why we need more charter schools,'" said Christine Matthews, president of Bellwether Research, which conducts polling and qualitative research on a variety of topics including education policy and reform. But the public instead needs to know, "What's a charter school?" Matthews said. Each year since 2013, EdChoice, with help from Braun Research, conducts phone interviews with Americans from across the country to gauge public opinion on a variety of educational topics. This year's survey found most Americans liked the idea of education alternatives. But respondents also admitted to a lack of knowledge about school choice programs and how they perform. EdChoice asked survey participants the average amount of annual dollars spent per student in the public school system. The most popular answer was "I don't know" followed by "$4,000 or less." Without actual data, only 17 percent said they believed students receiv

by Rich Creason When I am no longer able to walk the fields and woods, I will pass this wonderful gun with all of its history along to him. Maybe in another 20 or 25 years, this Savage Model 220 will continue its hunting tradition with a fifth generation. AmmoLand Gun News USA -( AmmoLand.com )- Mom was born and raised in the tiny town of Kimball in the eastern side of South Dakota. Somehow, she landed with dad in Indiana where my brother and I were born. Lucky for me, they took us back to visit her family every October, just in time for pheasant season. My dad hunted for pheasant and rabbit. I was the dog flushing the bird or rabbit and fetching it after the shot. But, my mom was the one who taught me how to shoot. Back then, in the late 50's, she was one of few women hunters. Her gun was a Savage, Model 220, .410 single shot. I don't know how many pheasants were taken by her with this gun, but the limit was five birds per day, possession of 25 birds, and I think she always got her limit. Savage Model 220 .410 single shot Shotgun I was about ten when she began setting up cans for me to destroy with that shotgun. After a while, she began throwing them in the air and it didn't take long before those cans too became torn pieces of metal. Graduation came when we were walking a fencerow and a rooster pheasant exploded from the cover. With one shot, the only shot I had, I dropped that bird. Mom had me hooked. A couple years later, she moved up (?) to a 20 gauge automatic. I became

Appeal To The Working Class? Don't Bother, Says Krugman By Jim Naureckas, www.fair.org November 28, 2016 Appeal To The Working Class? Don't Bother, Says Krugman 2016-11-28 2016-11-28 https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.png PopularResistance.Org https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2016/11/Clintonism-1-e1480342041803-150x90.jpg 200px 200px Above Photo: "Clintonism" is the future, Michael Lind argued in the New York Times (4/16/16). (photo: New York Times) In the wake of a disastrous Election Day, does the Democratic Party need to present economic policies that have more to offer the majority of voters? Don't bother, argues New York Times columnist Paul Krugman ( 11/25/16 ). Krugman begins by acknowledging what some have denied--that class played some role in what happened on November 8: "What put Donald Trump in striking distance was overwhelming support from whites without college degrees," he writes. "So what can Democrats do to win back at least some of those voters?" The columnist says that Bernie Sanders--not one of Krugman's favorite people --suggests it needs candidates who understand that working-class incomes are down, who will "stand up to Wall Street, to the insurance companies, to the drug companies, to the fossil fuel industry." But Krugman doubts this would do any good. First off, there's the media: Any claim that changed policy positions will win elections assumes that the public will hear ab

29 April, 2016 Countercurrents.org C anada's Prime Minister Trudeau thinks that you have to build pipelines to mitigate climate change ; that you need to raise revenue by producing fossil fuels to pay for a transition to a renewable energy, post-carbon economy. Canada is the worlds fifth largest producer of fossil fuels (and hence, climate change). During the Harper years (and during high fossil fuel prices) over half of Canada's wealth generated from exports were from fossil fuels. No wonder the Trudeau governments is in new climate denial - governing without these high levels of economic activity and income is impossible in our presently configured economy. Trudeau claims he has always advocated for new pipelines to get Canadian bitumen to tidewater: "I have been crystal clear for years now on pipelines. One of the fundamental responsibilities of any Canadian prime minister - and this goes back centuries, from grain on railroads to fish and fur - is to get Canadian resources to international markets". But times change. Climate change becomes far worse far faster. Canada's PM pretends to leadership on the world stage: 'Canada's back', and promises that his government is really serious about climate change: backing a global target of keeping emissions well below 2C, but then uses his governmental powers to try and facilitate an even larger expansion of fossil fuel production - this is Canada's PM sliding back to join Stephen Harper as a global climate criminal: continuing to

Nine weeks ago, oil near a tar sands extraction site in Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada, began to leak and ooze from the ground. It is currently wending its way through a nearby swampy forest, blackening vegetation and killing wildlife. It shows no signs of stopping. Even worse, scientists have no idea where it's coming from or what to do about it. In Cold Lake, Alberta an environmental disaster is unfolding. The Primrose bitumen emulsion site has been seeping tar over 30 acres of swampy forest for the past nine weeks. [Photo: Inhabitat.com/Wikicommons (CC) Twenty-six thousand barrels of watery oil have already been removed from the area, but the efforts seem to be fruitless given the fact that as of now, the gushing crude cannot be stopped, and the actual source of the leak is unknown. The leak began, however, after Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. began extracting oil from beneath the ground by injecting ultra-hot, high-pressure steam into it, which allows crude to be pumped to the surface. It's called "cyclic steam stimulation (CSS)" in the industry, but concerned environmentalists will undoubtedly think of fracking, another practice that tampers with the earth, in that case to extract natural gas. CSS was introduced by Shell, the big oil corporation with a filthy legacy of criminal action and environmental destruction , and has only been in heavy use in recent years, particularly in California and Venezuela. Along with train explosions , drilling rig blowouts , and leaking pipe

W hen we think about Vancouver as one of the most multicultural and diverse cities in the country it's important to consider how this diversity is represented in the social and geographical makeup of the city and what kind of diversity this suggests. Growing up in Vancouver, I learned to distinguish between neighbourhoods based on their dominant ethnicity, and I found I could explain my cultural background simply by listing a few activities I participated in. There is an understanding among residents of Metro Vancouver, much like the well-known attitude of New Yorkers, that the neighbourhood in which you live says something about who you are. In 2011 the Vancouver Sun created an online interactive map, which outlined ethnic enclaves in the Lower Mainland, notably Chinese Richmond, South Asian Surrey and Filipino Burnaby. Within Vancouver proper there are also similar neighbourhoods defined by their ethnic makeup such as Little Italy on Commercial Drive and Greek West Broadway. The idea of diversity in Vancouver has always seemed paradoxical to me for this reason: Vancouver is home to many different ethnicities and cultures; however, these seem to be largely segregated into separate enclaves and neighbourhoods. This then leads me to consider the follow-up question of whether this "mosaic" of cultural diversity, as it is often referred to in the Canadian context, offers more than a cultural assimilation or "melting pot" approach. Although I was born and raised in Vancouver, my

Last week I spent the day at Facebook's London headquarters, which was playing host to a Q&A session between the main party leaders and those two words no one in politics can say without sounding about ninety: "young people". The event was partly an attempt to show that, despite common consensus, these mythical "young people" are actually super-engaged in current affairs and political discourse. The premise, therefore, that politicians are letting them down by failing to adequately address their concerns and lobby for their votes. It should have been a heartening day. At last, politicians and "young people" were sitting down together in a room, with the eyes of the print and broadcast media on them. At last, "young people" could explain to politicians why they feel so let down and politicians could try to convince them that they had the answers for the next generation. Instead, I came away feeling more than a little underwhelmed, and both the questioners and their subjects were to blame. Time and time again, the teens and twenty-somethings in the room aired the same grievances: their tuition fees had been trebled under this government, their Education Maintenance Allowance - a subsidy paid to teenagers to keep them in school until 18 - had been cut. A new generation of voters had their chance to set the world to rights and all they could really come up with were two incredibly minor policies which they are wrong about anyway. It is right that this government increased tuitio

Supporters of Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney look on during a campaign rally at Flagler College on August 13, 2012 in St Augustine, Florida. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Mitt Romney's decision to tap Paul Ryan , instead of a woman or minority, as his running mate will leave in place the huge demographic gap that has defined the 2012 campaign cycle: Obama leading among blacks, Hispanics, women and voters under 30, while Romney is ahead among older and white voters. In choosing Ryan, Romney opted against a direct appeal to the women's vote, unlike John McCain, who chose Sarah Palin four years ago. He is also not making a sharp pitch to Hispanics by picking a Latino candidate, such as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. And he rejected the urgings of some Republicans to choose former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice , who had the potential to help Romney with minorities, women and moderate voters, and reshape the contest. Republicans note Ryan, at age 42, does represent a new generation for the GOP and will help appeal to young voters better than the 65-year-old Romney. Democrats in turn argue that the congressman's controversial plan to remake Medicare will pull elderly voters away from Romney. But those differences are likely to be at the margins. Ryan's core appeal is to conservatives who like his commitment to budget cuts and less government intervention in health care and the economy. And he is expected to court working-c

For decades now, the liberal "news" media have demonstrated a dramatic tilt toward the gay agenda, beginning with their notion that there is no such thing as a "gay agenda." But now as the Supreme Court mandated gay "marriage" on all 50 states the liberal world is celebrating the agenda it has been pushing for decades. Television coverage has been the usual appalling agitprop, but in this case it was also a victory lap. News segments have been either unanimous in their "analysis" or, if "balance" is presented, stacked by about five to one. Simply put, a debate is not allowed, just as it is not allowed on global warming, gun rights, abortion and a host of other liberal imperatives. So much for free speech. Former Good Morning America weather man Sam Champion is a gay activist on air and off, and he recently told CNN that this liberal bias is terrific. "I think TV always eases the path for change. I think what people watch in their homes, what they're comfortable with in their homes leads the way for acceptance in this country." Champion and his champions are never, ever asked serious questions challenging their views. What kinds of questions are appropriate? Enter Kevin DeYoung. Mr. DeYoung has taken to the Gospel Coalition website to pose over forty questions to Christians who consider themselves supporters of gay "marriage." These are precisely the kinds of questions a disinterested press would ask if it were disinterested. Gays have suggested - and now aggressively insist

Kathryn Moody : Investors, Are You Ready for the Next Global Crisis? Manuel Schiffres Mutual Fund Rankings, 2014 Meghan Streit : Pitching In When Caregivers Need Help Janet Bond Brill, Ph.D., R.D.N., F.A.N.D : How to prevent a second (and first) heart attack thru diet The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington : Caprese is a light, fresh salad; the perfect quick and easy accompaniment to any summer meal Mark Steyn : You Want Nazis? Jonathan Tobin : Care about the Jewish state's future? Obama, in interview, reveals even more reasons to worry Alan M. Dershowitz : Confirmed: Needless death and destruction in Gaza Katie Nielsen : As a mother, I'm all I need to be Cameron Huddleston : 18 Retailers That Offer Price Adjustments Nellie S. Huang : The Best Health Mutual Funds to Buy Now Brierly Wright, M.S., R.D. : Try these 'secret-weapon' foods to boost your changes of losing weight The Kosher Gourmet by Jessica Yadegaran : Take some relish in pickled goodies (5 recipes!) Kimberly Lankford : 50 Ways to Cut Your Health Care Costs James K. Glassman : Investors, Are You Ready for the Next Global Crisis? The Kosher Gourmet by Nick Malgieri : Chocolate molten delight with creme anglaise is a simple yet elegant make-ahead dessert The inauguration of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem is an important recognition of Israel's inherent right to govern itself. It is also the start of a new era, one in which the international community's relationship is based on reality and fact, not fantasy and

President Obama delivered an unprecedented rebuke of the Israeli people by an American president today. In words that were designed to reach more Muslim citizens than United States citizens, Obama called Israel's legitimate West Bank settlements an "occupation"; and by calling for a return to the 1967 borders, he is calling for a divided Jerusalem. He continued to press Israel to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority (PA) and, subsequently, with the "unity government" the PA has formed with the terrorist group, Hamas. It's extremely troubling that President Obama would side with the Palestinian Authority in an effort to jump-start peace talks in the Middle East. President Obama is not the negotiator-in-chief for the Middle East and to make sweeping demands and characterizations not only hurts the peace process but also damages U.S.-Israeli relations. For decades, Israel has been our most important ally in the region. Sadly, with the President's remarks, and decision to side with the Palestinian Authority, it appears he no longer believes that is the case. By endorsing the "unity government" he has rewarded Hamas - a terrorist organization that calls for the elimination of the Jews. If there was ever any question about the intent of those whom President Obama expects Israel to negotiate with, this week's news report gives a clear answer: "A member of the Palestinian Authority parliament spelled out his organization's vision for the genocidal annihilation of the Jewish peopl

Boris Johnson has resigned as the British foreign secretary, according to several media reports. File image of Boris Johnson. PTI The Guardian r eported that Johnson became the third minister in 24 hours to walk out of the government rather than back Theresa May's plans for a soft Brexit. The prime minister hammered out a compromise with her deeply divided Cabinet in an all-day meeting at Chequers on Friday, but after consulting friends and allies since, Johnson decided he could not promote the deal, according to the report. Sky News reported that Boris Johnson described Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit proposals -- agreed to by the entire cabinet on Friday -- as "polishing a turd". Sky Sources confirmed that Johnson repeatedly used the phrase at the away day at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat. Johnson's resignation comes on the heels of David Davis quitting in protest as Brexit secretary at the government's plans for a close trading relationship with the European Union. Dominic Raab was appointed the new Brexit secretary on Monday. "The Queen has been pleased to approve the appointment of Dominic Raab MP as Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union," a statement from May's office said. Raab was previously a minister for housing.

Why We Still Need LGBT Labels The battle for LGBT equality has not yet been won. Stand up and be counted! By EJ Rosetta Published: 2015.04.07 06:10 PM With same sex marriage now legal in 37 US states, England and throughout much of Europe , the West has made the last few years count when it comes to equality. But with it, we've begun to witness a strange and unexpected phenomenon: The "Back Seat Gay". It appears that certain pockets of society have decided that since they now have access to the same rights as their neighbors, they can sit the hell down and enjoy them. So many of us are declaring "We don't need labels" and refusing to acknowledge their sexuality openly or actively, murmuring something about fluidity and self-identification. Is this a political stance, a belief that we truly live in a world where we no longer need labels? Because, although optimistic, this is a slightly misguided take on the realities of a world still divided. Now I stand completely behind the sentiment of an un-labelled society... It stems from a genuine belief that we are all equal, which I couldn't be more in support of. But we aren't there yet. I hear so often about how we don't need labels, but we do. Although I agree that we shouldn't need them, it's a truth self-evident that an army must wear its colors, and ours is that rainbow flag. When movements such as Race Equality, Women's Rights and Religious Freedom were in full swing, do you think that members of those minorities could just hid

SB1657 - Gun Dealer Licensing - Is Headed to the Illinois House Floor Gun Dealer FFL Illinois - -(Ammoland.com)- SB 1657 (Gun Dealer Licensing) is the Senate version of the legislation that would force your favorite gun store to close under a mountain of new regulations. This bill will affect your ability to buy firearms or ammunition in Illinois. Never mind the weight of all the federal regulations that gun dealers and gun owners must deal with, your retailer and you will have more Illinois regulations and fees now too. The bill as amended passed out of the Senate on a 30-21 vote and today passed out of the committee hearing in the Illinois House of Representatives. This bill is now expected to see action on the floor of the House. SB556 Munoz - SFA1 - Semi-auto and magazine ban This is a ban of your favorite semi-auto firearms and magazines. This is done by amending an empty piece of legislation ("shell" bill) that has already progressed in the Senate. If you look up the bill, you have to read the amendment (SFA1) to see its impact. The status page of the bill will not show the new intent of the bill. SENATE: This bill was not called in committee hearing today. Please copy this alert to friends using the link below. Check out ISRA's website at www.isra.org! Tell us what you think! Follow the ISRA on Twitter and Facebook. Give the gift of an ISRA membership. Not an ISRA Member? Join Today! 8 thoughts on " SB1657 - Gun Dealer Licensing - Is Headed to the Illinois House Floor

Though much has been said concerning the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, analysts have not yet trained enough attention on another tax-exempt organization the Clintons control, the Clinton Family Foundation. Unlike the better-known charity started almost 21 years ago as an archive and research center for presidential records created during Bill Clinton's eight-year White House tenure, the second entity -- a grant-making charity whose Employer Identification Number is 30-0048438 -- was formed in December 2001 and can only make donations to validly organized and operated public charities. According to information provided by the larger Little Rock-based charity, the Clinton Family Foundation has contributed $5 million to $10 million cumulatively through the end of 2016. For now, let's concentrate on problems seen through examining history from 2013 through 2017 and leave other problems dating back to 2001 for another day. Records available through the New York State Attorney General Charities Database (insert "Clinton Family Foundation" or "30-0048438" into relevant search fields) show that the Clinton Family Foundation contributed a total of $3,365,000 in 2014 and 2015 to an entity incorrectly described as the "William J. Clinton Foundation." This receiving entity had been renamed the "Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation" on April 9, 2013. These donations were a majority of all grants made (53 percent) by the Family Foundation in those years, so they are mat

The National Rifle Association's annual meeting here this week, featuring scheduled appearances by President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, is expected to draw tens of thousands of gun-rights advocates and plenty of protests. Here's what you need to know about the group's first convention in Texas since 2013. Supporters call it 'the premier Second Amendment celebration' The three-day event begins Friday at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. Hundreds of vendors, including all of the country's major firearm companies, will be spread out over 650,000 square feet offering their wares to hunters, gamers, ranchers and gun enthusiasts. There are also training and advocacy events, concerts and the organization's annual membership meeting. More than 70,000 people are expected to attend. "It's the premier Second Amendment celebration in the United States," said NRA spokesman Jason Brown. As an NRA member and the legislative director of the Texas State Rifle Association, Alice Tripp has been to several of the annual meetings. She said they're "absolutely huge" and draw passionate gun owners from all over the country. "It's important to them to never miss one," Tripp said. "It's the family vacation. And God bless them. I'm all for it." Protests and counter-events already planned Since the NRA's last annual meeting, gun-control advocates have been galvanized by multiple mass shootings including the deadliest in U.S. history, at a Las Vegas concert ; Texas' most de

In a career that spanned over six decades and touched generations of music lovers around the world, legendary American soul singer Bobby Womack has passed away at the age of 70. News of the famed singer's death broke late Friday evening and was announced by the publicist associated with Womack's record label. The singer's cause of death is yet to be disclosed. From his early beginnings singing gospel music, Bobby Womack would take church born musical influences and reinvent his sound to a more secular tune of soul, rhythm and blues and pop music. Womack began working as a back up musician for soul singer Sam Cooke and would soon after get signed along with his brothers as a group called The Valentinos to Cooke's record label SAR Records until Cooke's untimely death in the mid 1960s. During their time with SAR records, they scored their first hit with a song called I t's All Over Now, a song that would go on to be re-recorded by The Rolling Stones. Along with the Stones, Bobby Womack would write a string of songs for artists like Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, and Rod Stewart among others. Personally, Bobby Womack went on to marry Sam Cooke's widow Barbara Campbell and would soon after find his career floundering for a lengthy period of time throughout the mid 1970s and into the early 1980s. The marriage to Campbell would ultimately end in divorce and Womack would go on to marry two more times unsuccessfully. By 1981, Womack would revive his career and come back with the h

President Donald Trump has allowed the resumption of refugee admissions into the U.S. under new, stricter screening rules but ordered nationals from 11 countries believed to pose higher risk to U.S. national security to face even tougher scrutiny. Officials refused to identify the 11 countries, but said refugee applications from those nations will be judged case-by-case. Trump issued his new order on refugee screening Tuesday as the administration's four-month ban on refugee admissions expired. It directs federal agencies to resume refugee processing, which he reined in shortly after taking office. The new "enhanced vetting" procedures for all refugees include such measures as collecting additional biographical and other information to better determine whether refugees are being truthful about their status; improving information-sharing between agencies; stationing fraud detection officers at certain locations overseas; and training screeners to weed out fraud and deception. Refugees already face an extensive backlog and waiting periods that can take years. Additional screening will likely lengthen the wait. "The security of the American people is this administration's highest priority, and these improved vetting measures are essential for American security," said acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke. "These new, standardized screening measures provide an opportunity for the United States to welcome those in need into our country, while ensuring a safer, more secure

Miss Indiana USA, Mekayla Diehl, 25, was a contestant for the Miss USA pageant that was held in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on June 8. Although all 50 women were gorgeous, Diehl's body stood out among all the rest and was certainly the fan favorite for the night. Americans from all over the country could not stop raging on social media about how normal her figure was, which was the reason why everyone loved her. Miss Nevada, Nia Sanchez, took the Miss USA crown but Mekayla Diehl did not need that title to get her own set of fans. Diehl's curvy body brought a refreshing sense of normalcy to fans of all ages. Her body and figure was the only one that was "normal." For decades, pageant girls all worried about obtaining a super skinny and "perfect" body. Many would feel discouraged due to body insecurities, but Diehl strut down the stage with all the confidence in the world despite how curvy she was compared to the others. She was proud of her body in her basic white bikini and wanted to flaunt it to the world with an exceptionally large smile on her face. She was not going to let her non-skinny figure stop her from giving this beauty pageant her all. Diehl is from Elkhart, Indiana. She is the first Native American ever to be crowned as Miss Indiana USA last November. She is also the manager of a bridal and prom dress shop in her hometown, which only makes sense considering she picked a beautiful deep red even gown with a plunging neckline to wear to the evening gown segment of Miss U

Over 500 undocumented and other immigrants and their supporters held a Migrant Rights March on July 25, the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Activists came from as far away as Georgia, Louisiana, Illinois and Tennessee to demonstrate their commitment to immigrant rights at the site of the DNC and to stand in sharp contrast to the attacks on immigrants that had been launched earlier by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during his acceptance speech. Juntos, the #Not1More Campaign, the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, the Congress of Day Laborers and other groups gathered in South Philly. They rallied and then began to march from Capitolo Field, in a neighborhood where many Mexican, Honduran and other Central American migrants live and work. As the temperature reached 95 degrees, organizers handed out bottles of water and fresh peaches from a nearby shopping area, long known as the Italian Market, but where many vendors from Latin America and Asia now sell produce and run stores and restaurants. Their demands were clearly stated on many colorful banners and signs: "Moratorium on deportations NOW," "Dismantle ICE" [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], "End all detentions" and "Ni [email protected] mas" [Not one more]. Another sign, "Shut down Berks," referred to a facility 60 miles west of the city where hundreds of refugee mothers and their children are being held in the Berks Family Detention Center. One Latina held a sign

ANALYSIS - Obama hardly seems likely to be forced out of office, impeached or have the kind of incident like Katrina that eliminates his credibility with members of both parties... ANALYSIS - The Mother Day's event at the White House on Friday, in which the president appeared with a group of women to tout the benefits of the so-called Affordable Care Act, wasn't just about mothers... OPINION - For the party to survive it was time to turn the elephant to face its future. But have you ever tried to turn an elephant? WASHINGTON (AP) - Making history, America's blacks voted at higher rates than whites in 2012, lifting Democrat Barack Obama to victory amid voter apathy... theGRIO REPORT - The Obama administration is ramping up its plans to implement the so-called Obamacare health care law, with speeches from the president, new aides tasked with selling the law to the public and a broad push to get people to enroll... theGRIO REPORT - Watt's nomination still has to be approved by the Senate. When I spoke with him the day after his White House appearance with the president, he was ready... ANALYSIS - When ABC News' Jonathan Karl asked President Obama this week at a press conference if Obama had 'the juice' to get his agenda through the Congress, the president bristled and argued he was still relevant... ANALYSIS - Almost no one publicly criticized Collins or suggested a gay player would somehow disrupt the morale of an NBA team, the argument that was long cited in barring people who

I moved to Long Beach from Pico Rivera almost three years ago to be closer to Cal State Long Beach and settle in as a new 49er. I had three roommates at the time, and like many students moving into this city, we understood that paying $1,600 a month for a two-bedroom apartment was part of the deal. Long Beach is a coastal city, so we assumed that the apartments in the area were all going to be around the same expensive price range. Today, the Hathaway Apartment website lists the same apartment we rented at $2,065 per month. That's a 7.5 percent increase for each year since I had it. And although that number may not look like a huge amount of money, for many Long Beach inhabitants, rent inflation has determined whether or not they get to call this city their home. The issue at hand is the city's action of discarding low-income residents for the sake of what Josh Dulaney of the Long Beach Press Telegram called "urban renewal," in an August 2016 article concerning rising rent prices in some of Long Beach's working-class neighborhoods. This concept of "urban renewal," as a way to improve neighborhoods is essentially an enticing nickname for gentrification. In the past decade or so, Long Beach has been experiencing a revitalization of community from investors who fund the building of high-end businesses. They predict the property value in the area to skyrocket as a result. The percent increases matches or exceeds many shoreside cities in Los Angeles County, such as Santa Monica an

In honor of Valentine's Day, today we're sharing a practice for growing unconditional love. Unconditional love is pure love - it does not desire to possess or judge, and it is unrestricted in its scope, starting from oneself then expanding outward to include all living beings. Cultivating unconditional love in our hearts can be a powerful grounding for how we choose to relate to others in our day to day lives and in our work to effect social change. Today's Practice* Take some time to find a quiet place and get into a comfortable position. Draw your attention to your chest area, your "heart center". Breathe in and out from that area, as if you are breathing from the heart center and as if all experience is happening from there. Anchor your mindfulness only on the sensations at your heart center. Breathing in and out from here, begin by generating a kind feeling toward yourself . Use either these traditional phrases or ones you choose yourself. Say or think them twice. May I be full of loving kindness, May I be healthy and free of physical pain, May I be calm, and relaxed, and without fear, May I be happy, content, and really free. Next, move to a person who easily invites the feeling of pure unconditional love, someone who has taken care of you . Repeat the phrases for this person: "May she be full of loving kindness...." Next, move to a person you regard as a dear friend and repeat the phrases again, breathing in and out of your heart center. Now move to a neutral person , s

By Ramzy Baroud "We must look back twenty-five years to realize how far Israel has fallen in world support," wrote famed Jewish scholar, Harvard sociologist, Nathan Glazer in 1976. In the last forty years since Glazer wrote his piece, which was uncovered and transmitted by Philip Weiss, Israel's global support has fallen much further. The country that once appealed to both United States' capitalism and the Soviet Union's socialism is now militarily powerful but, otherwise, politically isolated on the international stage. The misleading perception that Israel is a 'beacon of light' among nations has worn off. Worse, the last time this phrase was uttered at an international level, it was made by Geert Wilders , a Dutch populist right-wing politician perceived by many to be a racist and an Islamophobe . Yet, the more isolated Israel became, the more its dependency on the United States grew. "Supporting Israel is not in America's interests," Weiss wrote . "In fact, Israel is a strategic liability for the US. That makes American Jewish influence the ultimate pillar of Israel's survival." Although Zionists often speak of a historical bond between the US and the Jewish people, nothing could be further from the truth. On May 13, 1939, a boat carrying hundreds of German Jews was not allowed to reach American shores and was eventually sent back to Europe. That was not a foreign policy fluke. Three months earlier, in February 1939, members of Congress rejected a bill that would allow 20

President Donald Trump revealed his strategy to have Mexico pay for the border wall - so American taxpayers will not have to foot too much of the bill. Even though the Mexican government has refused to fund the building of the wall along the United State's 2,000-mile border with Mexico spanning from San Diego, California, on the Pacific Coast to Brownville, Texas, on the Gulf Coast, Trump insists that he has a plan that will get America's neighbor to the south to fund the massive project. A win-win situation? Trump asserts that his economic strategy will be a win-win situation for both Mexico and the U.S. - via the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). "He says he plans to offer a new deal on NAFTA that will share increased revenues between the two countries more equitably - a small portion of which will be diverted to pay for the cost of the wall," WND reported . "The Trump administration is currently seeking federal funding for the wall while renegotiating the U.S. trade deal with both Mexico and Canada." Knowing that Mexico was not keen on his initial plan to directly foot the bill for the erection of the wall designed to keep illegal aliens from entering the U.S., Trump found a way for the Latin American nation to fund it through business ventures. "They can pay for it indirectly through NAFTA," Trump told the Wall Street Journal in an interview on Thursday . "We make a good deal on NAFTA, and, say, 'I'm going to take a small percentage of that money and it's going

Had Trayvon Martin not been shot dead on this day last year, he would have turned 18 this month. In the initial weeks following Martin's death, national anger fomented as his killer George Zimmerman had walked free, without any charges, claiming self defense when he shot the unarmed teen. Across the country, thousands gathered for solidarity marches calling for justice and and end to the structural racism apparently characterizing the case. Zimmerman, 28, was eventually prosecuted. In April he was charged and charged with second-degree murder , and is currently awaiting trial set for June 10. While news about the case has perennially hit headlines in recent months -- for example when Zimmerman offered his autograph to his legal fund donors -- the proceeding have general fallen under the media radar. Here are the major developments and issues to be aware of: 1) Contradictory evidence: Much of the case being presented to jurors in Florida focuses around video and photo evidence from the night of the shooting. Zimmerman's defense team produced images reportedly from the night showing the shooter's head bloodied and cut. It's also unclear whether blurry video footage shows Zimmerman with an injury at the back of his head or not. According to the defendant, Martin had aggressively forced him to the ground and he shot in self-defense. However, much evidence conflicts with Zimmerman's account. For example, as CNN noted , "according to test results made public last May, which sho

Published 7:35 PM, May 25, 2018 Updated 8:51 PM, May 25, 2018 ONE FAMILY. In this photograph taken on April 7, 2018, Rohingya Muslim refugees (from left) Robi Alam, 16; Mohammad Hashim, 17; Mohammad Jaber, 18; and Abul Faiz, 12, pose for a photograph at their house in Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh. Photo by Munir Uz Zaman/AFP KUTUPALONG, Bangladesh - It takes a few moments to sift through the years of chaos and dislocation before Rohingya refugee Robi Alam settles on the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, August 2012, as the last time he saw his seven brothers together in Myanmar. "We were still a family then under one roof, in one country," the 16-year-old says, from his current home - a bamboo shack in a Bangladesh refugee camp. By then Myanmar had already lurched into a dark new phase of an old conflict between their Muslim Rohingya minority and the Buddhist ethnic Rakhine. Violence unravelled after the alleged rape and murder of a Buddhist woman by Rohingya men; neighbor turned on neighbor as villages across Rakhine state were set ablaze. Still, where they could, Rohingya families celebrated Eid, the end of the fasting month of ramadan. Robi recalls being carried on his older siblings' shoulders as they went door-to-door through the village of Yae Twin Kyun in Maungdaw district gorging on snacks. Nearly six years on, the 8 brothers are now split across 4 countries: Bangladesh, India, the United States and Myanmar. One is in a Myanmar jail, another has vanished on the

A recent poll found that an overwhelming majority (56.3 percent) of Australians are in favor of banning the Islamic women's garment known as the burqa, which has been a symbol of female oppression and isolation in the Muslim community. "Over 50 percent of respondents approved or strongly approved of banning the Islamic garment," Sky News reported from its Sky News /Reach TEL Poll Friday . "According to the data, 43.6 percent of respondents said they 'strongly support' the ban, while 12.7 percent approve of it." Just a handful of those from the Land Down Under think that prohibiting the burqa is a bad idea. "Only 12.3 percent and 18.9 percent of respondents disapproved or strongly disapproved of banning the burqa, while 12.5 per cent are undecided," the Australian daily divulged. Increasing Islamic security threat As the topics of Muslim refugees and same-sex "marriage" remain key issues for most Australians, one conservative leader recently felt the need to address the topic of Muslim women's ultra-concealing apparel - from head to toe - that many have been reluctant to bring up in political circles. "The topic has risen to the forefront of political debate after One Nation leader Pauline Hanson wore a burqa in parliament last week," Sky News informed. "She wore the garb to gain publicity for her push to ban the burqa in public places." The Right-leaning politician argued that an unacceptable security risk takes place when Muslim women wear the burqa, which conceals their fac

Recently, two Mississippi churches have caused quite a stir because they voted to leave the United Methodist Church. They are following the lead of two other Mississippi churches that left in 2017, The Orchard Church (a megachurch in Tupelo) and Getwell Road Church (another large church in Southaven, a suburb of Memphis). In each case, the pastors and congregations cited differences in worldview from the leadership of the denomination. The major problems are an inability of the denomination's leadership to condemn homosexuality as incompatible with Christian morals, some level of support for abortion, and the denial among some pastors and bishops of key doctrines such as the deity of Christ , His vicarious atonement and physical resurrection . It seems that trouble has been brewing in the United Methodist denomination for many years, and more and more congregations have had enough of its tolerance of heterodox teaching and apathy towards behavior that God clearly condemns in His Word the Bible. I am not Methodist, nor have I ever been one. I look at this battle from the outside looking in -- simply as another Christian scratching my head over issues that seem so cut and dried. So, the United Methodist Church is going to have yet another meeting to determine what to do about homosexuality? Can't they just read what the Bible says about it and accept that at face value? God is not supposed to fit into my mold... in fact I'm pretty sure He breaks whatever mold I come up with. Th

President Donald Trump said Tuesday the US is watching the "brutal and corrupt Iranian regime" amid deadly protests in the country, continuing his public support for anti-government demonstrations. "The people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime," Trump tweeted . "All of the money that President Obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their 'pockets.' The people have little food, big inflation and no human rights. The U.S. is watching!" Trump was apparently referring to the Obama administration's unfreezing of certain Iranian assets and payment of a cash settlement related to a legal claim on those assets that was negotiated in the wake of the Iran nuclear deal. The money was Iranian money that had been frozen by the US following the revolution. While there's no evidence to suggest Iran used that money directly to fund terrorism, the US State Department lists Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism. There is no evidence the money was used to enrich government officials. Trump has voiced criticism of the Iranian regime since protests broke out in the country several days ago, earning a rebuke from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who said Monday the US President has no right to sympathize with Iran because he has called the Iranian people "terrorists," according to Iran's semi-official Tasnim News Agency. On Sunday, state television broadcast Rouhani saying that Trump is "constantly creating problems" for Iranians, includin

By David Limbaugh David Limbaugh USA - -(Ammoland.com)- Attacks on President Donald Trump are commonplace -- many depict him as this wildly bizarre, classless person occupying the Oval Office -- but have critics fairly considered what a horror show a Hillary Clinton presidency would have been? Why is this relevant, you ask? Well, because the liberal media are permanently afflicted with Trump derangement syndrome and won't quit feeding Clinton's narcissistic obsession with her defeat. Did the media fixate on Mitt Romney's defeat to Barack Obama and forever question him about it? Clinton has been muttering about her loss since she recovered from the initial election-night shock, and it has been ugly. In early April -- and probably earlier -- she attributed her loss, in part, to misogyny. "It is fair to say ... certainly, misogyny played a role," she lamented at the Women in the World Summit in New York. "I mean, that just has to be admitted. ... Some people, women included, had real problems" with "the first woman president." In early May, Clinton said she takes " personal responsibility" but then quickly contradicted herself by shifting blame to Russian interference in the election and then-FBI Director James Comey's release of a letter concerning the investigation into her emails. Late in May, Clinton resurfaced at the Code Conference, denying she or her organization made any significant mistakes in the campaign and blaming many others and other factors for her loss. She sa

A National Day of Prayer was first called by the First Continental Congress in 1775, again by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, and then solidified as a national tradition in 1988 by President Reagan, who designated the National Day of Prayer as the first Thursday in May. Even before codifying the importance of a National Day of Prayer, President Reagan issued proclamations throughout his tenure in the White House. The following is one such proclamation from President Reagan, #4897, issued in 1982. While times and troubles have changed over the years, the President's words ring true today: National prayer is deeply rooted in our American heritage. From the earliest days of our Republic, Americans have asked God to hear their prayers in times of sorrow and crisis and in times of bounty. The first National Day of Prayer was proclaimed in 1775 by the Second Continental Congress. As thousands gathered in prayer in places of worship and encampments throughout the new land, the dispersed colonists found a new spirit of unity and resolve in this remarkable expression of public faith. For the first time, Americans of every religious persuasion prayed as one, asking for divine guidance in their quest for liberty and justice. Ever since, Americans have shared a special sense of destiny as a nation dedicated under God to the cause of liberty for all men. Through the storms of Revolution, Civil War, and the great World Wars, as well as during times of disillusionment and disarray, the nation has

Most Popular Beavers are the original geo-engineers. It's no exaggeration to credit them for their major role in building the North American landscape. In pre-colonial times, there were as many as 400 million of them. They used their big buckteeth and tough paddle-tails to build dams across every stream imaginable, spreading water to a Noah's Ark-worth of creatures that thrive in the wet habitats they create. Now, of course, they are mostly long gone from the land, and conservationists want them back. Sorenson recently trained and got certified to trap and transport beavers in anticipation of restocking the streams that tumble down the Aquarius Plateau. He is convinced that it is only a matter of time before they are reintroduced. After all, several of those streams have already been scientifically assessed and identified as prime candidates for such a reintroduction program. But when I talked to him at a cafe in the small hamlet of Boulder, Utah, he was feeling discouraged. A remnant colony of beavers along North Creek, he told me, is just about gone. Over the last two years, at least thirty-four of them have been illegally shot or legally trapped by a local irrigation company. Although beaver reintroduction is getting rave reviews in places like Scotland , where the last one had been trapped out hundreds of years ago, and Oregon , where they are healing land hammered by logging, in Utah the road back will be rough. Flat-Tail Climate Hero Beavers were once abundant across th

Whether or not Netanyahu, his government and the heads of the security agencies have been truthful about the cause of hundreds of forest fires in occupied Palestine, and their accusation that Palestinians in Israel were responsible for arson, they should resign. Within four days, hundreds of fires were ignited across the country. According to the official statements, there was no advance intelligence about any of them; all of the fires, apparently, came as a surprise. In order to organise so many acts of arson, there must be advance preparation for months, perhaps even years, in which hundreds partake in complete secrecy. Sites would have to be agreed upon; the locations must not have surveillance cameras; and advance visits must be made. While this was being done, other people would have had to prepare the flammable materials, and transport to and from the sites would have to be organised. Then, of course, someone would have to start the fires. All would have had to be done under a co-ordinated leadership for such a large-scale operation to be carried out. The leadership would have had to wait for ideal weather conditions and then order the start of the operation. Thus those taking part would attack Zikhron Ya'akov from various sides. After this, they had to change their targets and move to other areas in order to exhaust and stretch the fire service. Then the instructions would have been issued to ignite fires across the city of Haifa, starting with an attempt to burn the f

Americans have shown an abiding capacity to express their deep disquiet about the nation's direction: Maybe this is as good as it's ever going to get , or worse, maybe tomorrow won't be as materially prosperous or offer as much opportunity as today or the recent past . History does record that these moments of misgiving would indeed have been terrible ones in which to bet against the United States. Each bout of pessimism was followed by economic expansion and an upsurge of optimism and national morale. The volatile 1970s reached their emotional nadir 16 months before Jimmy Carter's reelection defeat, with his "malaise" address. In Ronald Reagan's 1979 speech, which launched his presidential bid, Carter's successor said, "They tell us we must learn to live with less, and teach our children that their lives will be less full and prosperous than ours have been; that the America of the coming years will be a place where--because of our past excesses--it will be impossible to dream and make those dreams come true. I don't believe that. And I don't believe you do, either." Reagan was speaking at a time when fewer than a fifth of Americans were satisfied with the country's direction, according to Gallup. Country singer-songwriter Merle Haggard had a 1982 hit called "Are the Good Times Really Over?" that reflected the nation's apparent permanent funk. But that was followed in relatively short order by "Morning in America" and the Reagan boom. A decade later, the country was awash in

Gerald Scarfe cartoon Jan. 27, 2013 Sunday Times After The Sunday Times of London published a cartoon of a scowling Netanyahu making peace by building a wall with bricks, blood, and bodies writhing in anguish on January 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, all hell broke loose. The cartoon by Gerald Scarfe carries the caption 'Israeli Election-Will Cementing Peace Continue? Today Rupert Murdoch "took the unusual step of apologizing personally," says the New York Times , for the cartoon, calling it "grotesque and offensive." While Scarfe himself says he "very much regrets" the timing of the cartoon. He didn't realize Sunday was Holocaust Memorial Day. Jewish groups had reacted with condemnation and outrage. The European Jewish Congress demanded The Sunday Times apologize. The Anti-Defamation League called it a blood libel and The Times of Israel reported Israel was going to demand an apology . The Board of Deputies of British Jews complained to the Press Complaints Commission . Initially, The Sunday Times defended publication of the cartoon. Responding to an inquiry from the website The Algemeiner : "This is a typically robust cartoon by Gerald Scarfe," said a spokesperson for The Sunday Times, adding, "The Sunday Times firmly believes that it is not anti-Semitic. It is aimed squarely at Mr Netanyahu and his policies, not at Israel, let alone at Jewish people." Israeli Ambassador to London Daniel Taub had this to say: "The newspaper should apologize for this. We're not

Three Important Ways That Equal Pay Is Connected To Reproductive Health Heidi Williamson Apr 9, 2013, 7:30 pm Today is Equal Pay Day -- the day that reflects the number of days women must work into the current year to earn the same salary that their male counterparts earned the previous year. Women earn 77 cents for each dollar earned by men. African American and Hispanic women earn 69 cents and 52.9 cents respectively for every dollar white men earn. This gap has remained in part because women also make up the highest number of employees in low wage jobs. These lower wage jobs rarely offer long term employment stability, health insurance, or retirement savings benefits. The result: fewer choices for women on all fronts, including reproductive health. Conversely, better access to reproductive health care helps to reduce the wage gap. Consider these facts: 1. The gender pay gap has narrowed in part due to reproductive health access. While women's wages lag behind men's, there is evidence that the long-term narrowing of the wage gap is in part due to women's ability to control their fertility and time their pregnancies. The introduction of the birth control pill and the legalization of safe abortion allowed women to enter the formal work economy en masse in the 60's and 70's. A 2012 study credits birth control for approximately a third of the wage gains made by women since the '60s. Within just one generation, most women were able to control their reproductive destinies, delay

By Art Stevens Meet the Press: Sunday, June 24th 2012: David Gregory interviews Marco Rubio. DG: Can any illegal immigrant become legal in the United States without first going home? MR: What we have to do first; is to win the confidence of the American people, and second; modernize our immigration system. The border security element, which has improved, needs to continue to improve. If we do these things, the problem of the nine to twelve million people becomes easier to deal with. DG: Who can become legal? What is amnesty? MR: We began to work on an approach, and will continue to work on an approach. We have to be compassionate to those nine to twelve million people. DG: I'm not able to get a definitive answer from you; which is; 'Can anyone become legal without first going home? This is going to be the brass tacks question." MR: The answer to that question depends on the environment on which it is being answered. Gregory then plays a clip of Obama defending his recent decision affecting Latin children. DG: You are not even comfortable saying what you would do about a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, even the children of illegal immigrants, because this is such a tough issue in the Republican Party over what is quote, unquote, amnesty. MR: That's not an accurate assessment. The Dream Act is too broad. It could lead to these kids bringing in multiple relatives. For many people, this issue is more valuable unresolved. Rubio brings up the issue of our enforcing our

Paul's deft defense of his principled pro-life stance compelled the political press to turn the tables on Democratic figures like Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who traditionally demagogues the issue of abortion rights unchecked by a critical media. What's more, the junior Kentucky senator's devotion to the cause of minority outreach is exemplary. Both Paul's mission and his style of execution are worthy of emulation, and the entire 2016 Republican field would do well to consider following his lead. It is, however, objectively true that Paul's foreign policy prescriptions do not reflect consensus opinion among his party's voters. If Rand Paul regards the 2003 Iraq War and the ensuing aftermath as a mistake, he shares that opinion with only 28 percent of his fellow Republicans , according to a Quinnipiac University survey released on Thursday. By contrast, 78 percent of self-identified Democrats share the view that the Iraq War was a mistake. The senator's views on the war and its still reverberating impacts are more closely aligned with the opposition than the members of his own party. Similarly, another Republican presidential aspirant has determined to tether his political fortunes to a set of policy positions that could be, or at least should be, out of step with the rest of his party. Sen. Rick Santorum is generally known for his socially conservative views on a variety of divisive subjects like abortion and same-sex marriage, but it is his economic vis

Saudi Arabia's new king, Salman bin Abdulaziz, openly discussed "Islamized terrorism" in his statement to an Organization of Islamic Conference entitled "Islam and Combatting Terrorism." Al-Arabiya transcribes King Salman's remarks, delivered to the conference by Prince Khaled al-Faisal: King Salman described "Muslim nations" as being "threatened by the infiltration of Islamized terrorism with its killing, oppression, pillaging and other ranges of aggression that have trespassed the borders of our Islamic world." He said these radicals, who are carrying "a falsified Islamic banner," have promoted a version of Islam which is "fueling the international opinion to hate Muslims." Muslims are now seen as "culprits and as a source of fear and concern." The terrorist militants have also caused "embracement and nervousness to the Islamic nations, its organizations and its people in front of other nations which we are connected to through cooperation." He said ties between Muslim nations and other non-Muslim states were "almost shaken and had gone backward because of these terrorists." The King also discussed the efforts of Saudi clerics and universities to dispute the theological justifications for Islamist terror, which is obviously a rather difficult conversation to have unless one admits there is such a religious framework for terrorist ideology. That is considerably more mention of Islam in a discussion of terrorism than anything you're likely to get from the Obama Administ

Last year, the Oxford Dictionaries' Word of the Year was vape . It's relatively new, as far as words go: It first appeared in an article in 1983 in connection with a then-hypothetical device. Other contenders for the Oxford nod included "bae" and "normcore," and, as vapid as they might seem, each of these new words represents a linguistic evolution. The way we communicate changes rapidly -- English is now the language of any business school curriculum in Korea, and in 100 years it might be spoken everywhere. Or it might be wiped out by the language of a new world power. To predict how we'll communicate in the future, we turned Dr. Gregory Guy , who specializes in language variation and change. How does language typically change over time? Well, the main thing about language change is that it's not evolutionary in the sense of acquiring new capabilities. Sound systems change, words turn over, and syntactic structures change without any sense of improvement. So inevitably things will change, but without any sort of directionality. So the change is arbitrary? There are a couple of areas in which there are some general principles. So certain kinds of sound change are very common. When you have a sound like p, t , or k between two vowels, the common change is to make it b, d, or g . So you start out with a pronunciation like lit-tle, which is the way the British say that word, and you end up with an American-English pronunciation like lid-dle . That's a very natural kind of chang

Obama's Send-Off At White House Correspondents' Dinner Ends With The N-Word Too many of us keep the n-word alive. By Rev. Irene Monroe Published: 2016.05.04 11:03 AM What was expected to be a friendly and light-hearted skewering of political and media elites at the White House correspondents' dinner by Larry Wilmore, comedian and host of Comedy Central's The Nightly Show , turned into a night of off-color remarks, edgy jabs where you heard moans and groans. In his closing remarks thanking Obama for his tenure as president and the mark he has made in the world, Wilmore dropped the n-word. And at that moment you heard audible gasps and saw visible grimaces of shock, pain and embarrassment. "When I was a kid, I lived in a country where people couldn't accept a black quarterback," Wilmore said. "Now think about that. A black man was thought by his mere color not good enough to lead a football team -- and now, to live in your time, Mr. President, when a black man can lead the entire free world. Words alone do me no justice. So, Mr. President, if i'm going to keep it 100: Yo, Barry, you did it, my n---. You did it." When Wilmore dropped the n-word Twitter blew up. And what will probably be debated for a while is whether Wilmore went too far. Many of the comments on twitter were asking is the n-word what the American public need to hear associated to Obama's last months in office, especially given the racial rollercoaster the entire country has been on since Obama took office

Reading in a news story that unrepentant 1960s terrorist William Ayers was now a respected educator who had, among other things, written a blurb for the back cover of a book entitled Queering Elementary Education I was curious and ordered the book. I had no sooner finished it then I received an email from a mother concerned because her child's first grade teacher had read the class a story on same-sex marriage among guinea pigs and then announced her upcoming marriage to another woman. This sort of thing is justified by the supporters of pro-queer elementary education as a way to help children understand "diversity". In principle there is nothing wrong with making sure that children, no matter what their racial, ethnic or religious background, feel their heritage is represented and respected. Diversity is, however, a Trojan horse. Once the idea of accepting diversity is inside the walls, we discovered that, just as the wooden horse the Greeks left as a gift for the Trojans was filled with warriors who in the dead of night climbed out, opened the gates, let in the Greek army and destroyed the city, so hidden inside the diversity curriculum is something that undermines true respect. The promoters of diversity insist that, just as we acknowledge racial, ethnic, and religious differences, we must also respect diversity of sexual orientation and family arrangements. The diversity troops want to force educators, students, and parents to pretend that there is no difference between a

FNC's Tucker Carlson Tonight March 26, 2018 8:00 p.m. Eastern TUCKER CARLSON: If there is one lesson of this weekend's March for our Lives, it's that ending violence in America is easy. So easy that even children know how to do it. All that stands between the broken, chaotic country we live and the peaceful utopia of the future is a very small group of very evil people, mostly Republicans. As Parkland student David Hogg noted the other day, there are "sick effers" out there who want to sell more guns, murder more children and, honestly, just get reelected. Well, on the stage on Saturday, his classmate Alex Wind agreed with this. "If you take money from the NRA," Wind told the crowd, "you have chosen death." So, it's all pretty straightforward. If the NRA wasn't so blindly committed to killing children, if they didn't enjoy murder for its own sake, we wouldn't have school shootings in the first place. It's that simple. Speakers of the march told us that repeatedly and the media dutifully amplified that message and formed a protective ring around the activists. As Politico reporter Ben White put it, "The sickening efforts to slime, undermine, defame and dehumanize these young people betrays an enormous amount of fear." In other words, shut up, America, don't ask questions, the kids know what they are doing. But do they know what they're doing? This weekend, Vox.com ran a story with this title: "I've covered gun violence for years. The solutions aren't a big mystery." The piece

In March 1981, Ricky Ray Rector went out with his friends to a nightclub in Arkansas. When one of his friends couldn't afford the $3 cover charge, Ricky pulled out a gun. He killed one person and wounded two others. He fled the scene. A few days later, Rector's family persuaded Ricky to turn himself in to a cop that he knew since he was a kid. When the cop, Officer Robert Martin, arrived to his parent's house to pick him up, Rector fatally shot him. Rector then tried to kill himself, shooting himself in the head. He survived, but he was effectively lobotomized. In January 1992, Bill Clinton was in the fight of his life during the New Hampshire primary. Gennifer Flowers was hurting his campaign. There were many factors that helped Bill Clinton become the "Comeback Kid" of New Hampshire primary. One of the keys to victory was flying to Arkansas on January 24, 1992 as he went to oversee the execution of a prisoner named Ricky Ray Rector. Clinton knew that the death penalty and crime hurt the Dukakis campaign in 1988. In the debates, Bernie Shaw asked Michael Dukakis if his wife were raped and murdered would he support the death penalty for her killer. Dukakis replied, "No, I don't, Bernard, and I think you know that I've opposed the death penalty during all of my life. I don't see any evidence that it's a deterrent and I think there are better and more effective ways to deal with violent crime." This answer ended any chance Dukakis had of winning the campaign. At the time, crime

Opinion Illusive Russia Collusion Dreams USA - -(Ammoland.com)- "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce," a saying attributed to Karl Marx, comes to mind in this time of Trump. To those of us raised in the Truman era, when the Red Army was imposing its bloody Bolshevik rule on half of Europe, and NATO was needed to keep Stalin's armies from the Channel, the threat seemed infinitely more serious. And so it was. There were real traitors in that time. Alger Hiss, a top State Department aide, at FDR's side at Yalta, was exposed as a Stalinist spy by Congressman Richard Nixon. Harry Dexter White, No. 2 at Treasury, Laurence Duggan at State, and White House aide Lauchlin Currie were all exposed as spies. Then there was the Rosenberg spy ring that gave Stalin the secrets of the atom bomb. Who do we have today to match Hiss and the Rosenbergs? A 29-year-old redheaded Russian Annie Oakley named Maria Butina, accused of infiltrating the National Rifle Association and the National Prayer Breakfast. Is Putin's Russia really a reincarnation of Stalin's Soviet Union? Is Russia today a threat of similar magnitude? Russia is "our No. 1 geopolitical foe," thundered Mitt Romney in 2012, now cited as a sage by liberals who used to castigate Republicans for any skepticism of detente during the Cold War. Perhaps it is time to contrast the USSR of Stalin, Khrushchev, and Brezhnev with the Russia of Vladimir Putin. By the beginning of Reagan's tenure in 1981, 400,000 Red Army troop

There's a saying in Chicago: Any team can have a bad century--a reference to the Chicago Cubs, who haven't won a World Series since before the Titanic sank. But maybe this year is the year. With their 5-0 win Saturday night over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series, the Cubs clinched a World Series berth for the first time since 1945 and have a chance to win their first Series title since 1908. Chicago will take on another long-suffering team, the American League champion Cleveland Indians, who haven't won a World Series since 1948. The seven-game series begins in Cleveland Tuesday night. The Cubs' very long drought is the stuff of legend. Indeed, among the most famous of all baseball tales is the "Curse of the Billy Goat," which dates back to the 1945 Series. It was jubilant time for America. World War II finally was over, and life was starting to get back to normal. And with the Cubs winning the National League title, things were at a fever pitch in Chicago. In Game 1 of the Series against the AL champion Detroit Tigers, the Cubs easily won 9-0 in Detroit. But the Tigers came back to win the second game 4-1. In Game 3, still in Detroit, the Cubs shut out the Tigers 3-0. And then the plot began to thicken. With Game 4, the Series moved to Chicago's Wrigley Field. As a publicity stunt, Billy Sianis, owner of Chicago's Billy Goat Tavern, tried to bring a live goat into the ballpark--he even purchased a box-seat ticket for the animal wear

Our Family Coalition had a large contingent in last month's San Francisco Pride parade. Photo: Jane Philomen Cleland Governor Jerry Brown on Monday signed legislation establishing June as Pride Month by statute in California. While the governor has regularly issued a proclamation declaring June as Pride Month in the Golden State, now the matter is law. Brown signed Assembly Bill 2969, authored by gay Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell) and co-authored by all members of the California Legislative LGBT Caucus. It passed the state Senate in May with a bipartisan vote of 59-0, and previously passed the Assembly. "California has the largest LGBT population of any state in the union, and the state is home to over 40 LGBT Pride celebrations each year," said Low in a news release. "I want to thank Governor Brown for adding Pride to the list of celebrations codified in statute." Rick Zbur, executive director of Equality California, the state's largest LGBT rights organization, thanked Brown for signing the bill at a time when LGBT civil rights are being rolled back by President Donald Trump and his administration. "In the face of a president who refuses to recognize Pride Month, we're deeply grateful to Governor Brown, Assemblymember Low, and the entire LGBT caucus for recognizing the LGBTQ community's role in California and California's role in the LGBTQ civil rights movement," Zbur wrote in an email to the Bay Area Reporter. The bill honors the history of LGBT Pride and the larger m

CHQ Staff | 12/9/2015 In three days the House and Senate must pass a Continuing Resolution to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year. The bill is rapidly turning into a Christmas Tree for lobbyists and Washington insiders, but it will be a Grinch for American workers if some Members of Congress who are shilling for Big Business get their way. Among the worst ideas top GOP legislators want to include in the bill is a rider that could allow employers to replace at least 100,000 blue-collar Americans with up to 264,000 foreign temporary H-2B workers. Please join us in demanding an end to this dangerous folly by signing our open letter to House and Senate Republican leaders . The plan, says The Daily Caller 's Neil Munro, would actually cost taxpayers billions of dollars each year, because the unemployed Americans workers won't pay taxes, but would get unemployment checks and welfare aid from the taxpayers. Dubbing the rider "the GOP's pink-slip plan" Munro points out it would also cut the wages of many other American workers before the 2016 election. That's because the foreign temps hold down the normal wages that Americans could otherwise negotiate in a free market for their labor. The complex bill is a gift to donors and businesses, claimed Munro, because it would allow them to reduce wages offered in advertised jobs, thus deterring American applicants and then justifying their requests for H-2B visa workers. It also provides a huge loophole that technica

2012's Hope and Change will be retired on January 20, 2017 as the next President of the United States is sworn in. Much debate has already taken place as to who will run, whether support can be garnered, and whether it's time for new blood. A recycled feeling is more than apparent as last names like "Clinton" and "Bush" are muttered. Will this election cycle come down to nominating someone because it's supposedly their turn? To repeat previous years and elect based on superficial qualifications is an incredible disservice to our country. The last time the electorate chose in 2008 and 2012, the decision of many was largely based on the shallow. The desire to make history by choosing the first black president overwhelmed, and years of consequence ensued. Under the leadership of the current president: debt has increased, questioning amnesty for illegal immigrants is regarded as heartless, socialised medicine has gripped the reins of 1/6 of our economy through "Obamacare", and we are less safe. These are among the many destructive effects of the Obama presidency, and repercussions will continue for years. Such is the result of hiring a leader to assuage our sense of being on "the right side of history". The United States cannot go down such a path again. For these and other reasons, I believe the GOP candidate for president must show utmost strength, firstly in the areas of economic security and national security. The current crop of GOP candidates, none of whom have formal

Petition to start getting more funds for Measure H. We want to increase the sales tax for department stores from 9% to 10% and with the increase of sales tax we want to give 2% to provide more funds for the homeless community. This chart shows how much we spend the tax dollars on the things that we need in our state of California. The top thing on the list is Health and Human Services which serves as the amount of money we use to help the homeless people. We put 31.5% of our tax dollars to Health and Human Services to help the homeless yet there is still a great amount of homeless people in the state of California. With the money that we get from measure h it is going to helping the homeless and build more shelters for the homeless. We think that we are still going to need more money to build more shelters and clear the amount of homeless people that are in the state of California. We want to increase the sales tax from 9% to 10% and we want to take away 1.8% of the money we spend on corrections and rehabilitation and add it to Health and Human Services. We want to create a law where at least 33% of the tax dollars that California receives goes to Health and Human Services so that the population of the homeless can go down. So with the increase in tax and with at least 33% of our tax dollars going towards the homeless we hope that we can cut or even end homelessness for the future.

Author`s name Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey 01 May 2016 at 13:52 Today is Easter Sunday in Russia. We take a look at how this day is celebrated in the Christian Russian Orthodox tradition and examine how it is calculated. Today is a day of the celebration of the Rising of Christ (the Resurrection) but also a day of charity, giving to the poor, the needy and the orphanages. I would defy anyone to declare that the calculation of Easter is easy. It used to be based on the rough calculation of the Sunday in the week when the Jewish Week of Unleavened Bread (the Passover Week) occurred. In 325 it was decreed that Easter would fall on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring equinox. But... The Week of Unleavened Bread symbolizes the time when the Jewish slaves were liberated from slavery in Egypt and had no time to leave the dough to rise. Pesakh (Passover) commemorates this event (c. 1.300 BC), which begins on the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, a fertility benchmark when barley is ripe. The early Christian church celebrated Easter (the Passion and Resurrection of Christ) around this time - Christians would ask the Jews in their neighborhood when the Week of Unleavened Bread would occur (the calendar date changes from year to year) and celebrated their Easter on the Sunday of the same week. The question was that different Jewish and Christian communities calculated the date in different ways and it became an event which more or less coincided with the re

Published 1:37 PM, January 18, 2017 Updated 6:05 PM, January 23, 2017 In Partnership with MANILA, Philippines - We're always reading headlines on something new to rave about: the latest smartphone model, a medical discovery, or some breakthrough technology that makes things run faster, grow quicker, or produce results at cheaper costs. What does this tell us? Humans are always finding solutions to make things better. In our daily lives, we're hard wired to seek new things that will improve our well-being. Take our food preferences, for example. Aside from choosing whole or fresh ingredients, it's becoming increasingly popular to go vegetarian, vegan, or pescetarian. Those who adopt these choices are influenced by health reasons or concern for the environment. CAN YOU TURN JUNK FOOD TO GOOD FOOD? Your favorite pizza can be made healthier with different ingredients Still others would take it a step further, and go for o ptions that truly push "innovation" in eating: fortified produce and drinks, one-step, no-cook meals, or even trying out new food categories that not only taste good, but are also good for the body. The food product that's "changing the game" If you want to take that leap in changing what you put in your body, without compromising taste, texture, and even the entire experience of eating good food, you've got better options today. In the 1960s, a man named Lord Rank tried to find an alternative source of protein , given that the food demand was on the rise due to

Ready to join the resistance? Sign up for Take Action Now and we'll send you three actions every Tuesday. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation's journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation , check out our latest issue . Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. Fight Back! Sign up for Take Action Now and we'll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation's journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation , check out our latest issue . Travel With The Nation Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine? The following is a Q & A with Professor Garen Wintemute, Baker-Teret Chair of Violence Prevention, at the University of California at Davis medical school. Wintemute is one of the country's leading experts on the public health theory of gun control. He has long argued that gun violence is equivalent to a medical epidemic, and that, as such, public health measures ought to be taken to counter its spread. Sasha Abramsky : What happened in Connecti

A group of student survivors from the Parkland shooting announced their plan for a march on Washington, D.C., to call for gun control and more school safety. The protest, launched by students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, invites students from across the country to march on Washington, D.C., March 24, reports CNN. The students are demanding Congress pass gun control to ensure that students at any school do not have to go through another mass shooting like the Parkland shooting. "The mission and focus of March For Our Lives is to demand that a comprehensive and effective bill be immediately brought before Congress to address these gun issues. No special interest group, no political agenda is more critical than timely passage of legislation to effectively address the gun violence issues that are rampant in our country," the protest's website reads . A former student, Nikolas Cruz, shot up the Parkland, Fla. school, killing 17 people and wounding others. The FBI reportedly did not follow proper protocol and alert the Miami field office after receiving a tip in January about Cruz owning a gun and expressing a desire to kill people. The protest is also going after the National Rifle Association and those who take money from the group. "This isn't about the GOP. This isn't about the Democrats," student Cameron Kasky said. "This is about us creating a badge of shame for any politicians who are accepting money from the NRA and using us as collateral." Freedom of Speech

Low-income people, activists, community workers and others will gather in Adelaide on October 21 and 22 for "Power to the Poor -- Silent No More" , a two-day Anti-Poverty Week conference. The event -- organised by Anti-Poverty Network SA, a grassroots group composed of welfare recipients struggling with poverty and joblessness -- promises to be one of the largest Anti-Poverty Week events in the country. With its strong focus on the much-ignored voices of those dealing with financial hardship and unemployment -- not to mention with punitive, stress-inducing government policies -- the conference is an unique addition to the Anti-Poverty Week calendar. The conference will not only explore the challenges and attacks faced by welfare recipients, but also ways of effectively fighting back. This focus sharply contrasts with much of the political and media discussion around welfare. Whether it is Andrew Forrest's latest attempt to advocate for his brainchild, the cashless debit card; the government's continuing commitment to having young job-seekers go one month without any income, while also refusal to raise the Newstart Allowance; its announcement in this year's budget that another 30,000 Disability Support Pensioners will be shifted onto Newstart; or social services minister Christian Porter's recent comments at the Press Club on "welfare dependency" and unsustainable levels of spending on payments; the conversation happens as if the opinions of welfare recipients themselves do n

Australian lawmaker proposes to his partner as Parliament begins debating bill that could soon legalize same-sex marriage across the country. https://t.co/ieGO2auh9y pic.twitter.com/bIiF1OddT6 -- Good Morning America (@GMA) December 4, 2017 As the debate on same-sex marriage continues in Australia, a lawmaker added a personal element while discussing the bill on Parliament's floor by proposing to his partner right then and there. "In my first speech I defined our bond by the ring that sits on both of our left hands, and they are the answer to a question we cannot ask. There's only one thing left to do: Ryan Patrick Bolger, will you marry me?" Said Representative Tim Wilson to his partner Ryan Bolger who was viewing the debate from balcony seating, as reported by Reuters . Bolger nodded and mouthed the word "YES" to a thunderous applause from on-lookers. While the couple are already wearing engagement rings, they chose now to make their decision public as they anticipate the passage of legislation that would recognize their partnership in the eyes of the law. Gay marriage is expected to be legalized through Australia in the coming days as the country's House of Representatives is orchestrating the remaining details to remove the marriage limitation. This bill was set up following a vote last month in which a majority of Australia's voters called for across the board same-sex marriage. The couple's proposal received international praise as numerous outlets throughout the world

(Photo: Reuters/Stefano Rellandini) Pope Francis waves as he arrives to lead his weekly general audience in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican March 30, 2016. (Photo: Reuters/Stefano Rellandini) Faithfuls are checked with metal detectors by Italian policemen before entering Saint Peter's square to attend the Angelus prayer led by Pope Francis at the Vatican, March 28, 2016. (Photo: Reuters/Mohsin Raza) Family members comfort a woman mourns the death of a relative, who was killed in a blast outside a public park on Sunday, during funeral in Lahore, Pakistan, March 28, 2016. (Photo: Reuters/Mohsin Raza) Forensic officers look for evidence at the site of a blast that happened outside a public park on Sunday, in Lahore, Pakistan, March 28, 2016. (Photo: Reuters/Map) Maps of Pakistan and Lahore locating a suicide bomb attack that killed dozens of people in a park on Sunday. Pope Francis has asked Pakistani authorities to do more to protect Christians after a terror attack on Easter Sunday killed at least 70 in Lahore. Speaking from St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on Monday, Francis called on Pakistan's "civil authorities and all community leaders ... to do everything possible to ensure the security and serenity of the population, particularly the most vulnerable religious minorities," the Catholic News Agency reports. Francis added that the attack has "bloodied" the Easter season, meant to be a time of celebration and hope as Christ was resurrected from the dead. Free sign up c

Pope Francis: encouraging happiness at a higher level By Robert N. Driscoll | September 29, 2015, 6:03 EDT Printed from: http://newbostonpost.com/2015/09/29/getting-to-a-higher-level-with-pope-francis/ An unidentified child, who was carried out from the crowd to meet Pope Francis, reaches out to touch the Pontiff's face during a parade on his way to celebrate Sunday Mass on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2015. Pope Francis is in Philadelphia for the last leg of his six-day visit to the United States. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) Last week I saw Pope Francis on the West Lawn of the US Capitol. Francis' visit to the US was something to behold - he single-handedly shut down Washington, New York, and Philadelphia in turn because so many people, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, wanted to be part of the experience, hoping, just maybe, that by listening or even merely by proximity alone, to receive some of the grace, wisdom, and joy that Francis exudes . As a Catholic, I was heartened by the joy and hope of the Pope's message and by the overwhelmingly positive coverage that Francis and the Church received over the past week. As someone with more than a passing interest in politics, however, I was disappointed at how politicians, interest groups, media, and individuals of all political perspectives couldn't leave politics alone, even for a moment, to try to really listen to what Francis was saying. Liberal media outlets (meaning, most media

" In a false quarrel there is no true valour ." William Shakespeare - Much Ado About Nothing The above line is spoken by Benedick. Either Bill Shakespeare wasn't the greatest speller in the world, or he named the protagonist of his play as an appeal to the more base natures of Elizabethan theater-goers (maybe he was emulating Greek comedic playwright Aristophanes, who had his actors wear giant phalluses as part of their costumes). Benedick begins the play a troll, and by the end he's a troll in love. He's not sincere, not very genuine, but he exhibits flashes of virtuous character, though his actions are very often empty gestures, those of a man protesting something he doesn't understand, in his case, love. I relay this possible etymology of the name Benedick because there is a parallel between him and Colin Kaepernick. I'm not going to bother using the Google machine to learn the origins of Kaepernick's name (which I already hate typing), but just assert that "Colin Kaepernick" means "He Who Makes Empty Gesture." The San Francisco 49ers quarterback did not stand during the playing of the National Anthem before a preseason game. Kaepernick said he didn't stand so that it would raise awareness of the problems facing blacks in this country, essentially a lot of what Black Lives Matter protests. However, if Kaepernick was genuine about wanting to make a difference, he wouldn't sit during the National Anthem. He'd donate time and money to the cause(s) he believes in. He'd speak t

A homeless woman pauses in a Manhattan train station. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) (Photo by Spencer Platt for Getty Images) Gov. Andrew Cuomo said today that New York City's homelessness problem was obvious--and that Mayor Bill de Blasio should spend more city money to combat it. "If you walk around New York City, I think it's hard not to conclude that we have a major homeless problem in the City of New York," Mr. Cuomo told reporters today after an unrelated Manhattan press conference. "We have a major homeless problem all across the country. And I think the mayor is now acknowledging that we have a very serious homeless problem." Asked about the funding for programs to combat the scourge, Mr. Cuomo said, "I think the city should spend more--I think it's an investment--and I'm prepared to spend more." Mr. de Blasio--who has repeatedly asked the state to spend more on homelessness-- spoke at length about the issue yesterday on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show . Throughout the summer, Mr. de Blasio has more than once argued that the number of homeless people hasn't been rising, insisting the media coverage of street homelessness was disproportionate to the actual problem. Yesterday, the mayor shifted his tone, saying, "I think there is both a perception and a reality problem." The NYPD outlined plans to bring a "comprehensive strategy" to the issue, with a goal of providing outreach to people at more than 80 different spots identified as homeless encampments. Police Commis

In the red corner, President Trump's supporters declared that it proved their man is far from the 'alt-right' white supremacist figure often portrayed, and delighted in pointing out that his presidential predecessor, Barack Obama, had refused to pardon Johnson. 'Supposedly the president's a racist, okay?', scoffed Trump's former White House spokesman Anthony Scaramucci, 'So this is obviously ironic, that he's one of the least racist people that we all know'. Nor was it only America. After Johnson destroyed Jeffries, the champion took his new white bride on a 'working' honeymoon to Europe. He was met by enthusiastic crowds in London, where he hoped to fight the British champion Bombardier Wells, but the home secretary obtained an injunction banning Earl's Court from staging such a contest. 'Public sentiment of the day was outraged at the suggestion of a Black versus White fight', says Denzil Batchelor's old account, adding that the English establishment might have been more distressed 'because they were well aware of the probable result'. When Johnson was reduced to appearing on the Oxford Music Hall stage instead, an appreciative article in The Times noted with some regret that in his own country the champion 'passed as a "flash nigger", a type not to be encouraged by those who have to keep tens of millions of black men in subjection to the dominant race'. Unable to defeat the 'flash nigger' in the ring, the US authorities set about bringing him down outside it. That was the

Turns out The Congressional Hispanic Caucus excluded a Republican from their meeting on Thursday, and their reasoning behind it was because their caucus isn't about ethnicity but instead about sharing liberal viewpoints, reports The Washington Times . This absurd reason came after the CHC voted to deny Representative Carlos Curbelo, a Florida Republican, a seat in the caucus. Curbelo's parents are from Cuba and the Hispanic Caucus denied him access purely because he is a Republican. "'The CHC isn't just an organization for Hispanics; it is a Caucus that represents certain values. This vote reflects the position of many of our members that Rep. Curbelo and his record are not consistent with those values,' CHC spokesman Carlos Paz Jr. said in a statement." Paz did not say what those positions were or what their "values" were that Curbelo could not uphold to, but it fairly obvious that he meant "liberal values." Curbelo on Twitter said he was shocked when some CHC members accused him of being "anti-Hispanic." "The truth is that they only care about Hispanics as long as they are registered Democrats," he said. It is a mystery why the CHC wouldn't accept Curbelo because as far as Republicans go, he is fairly a left-leaning conservative. He has continuously called for a solution for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients and wants to create bi-partisan legislation for a new DREAM act. He recently just accepted the New Frontier Award for his commitment to combating clim

TELL THE U.S. FEDERAL DEPT OF LABOR & THE NY STATE DEPT OF LABOR: talktosolis@dol.gov , labor.sm.ls.ask@labor.ny.gov Increase the New york Federal & state Minimum Wage to at least $9.00 per hour In New York state the current federal & state Minimum Wage is $7.25 per hour, as a single person living in New York it is almost impossible to make ends meet, at wage rate of $7.25 per hour a single person would make $290 before taxes & approximately $250.00 after taxes which would bring in $1,000 per month. a studio apartment in New York on average cost $750 per month, with the other $250 remaining how is one supposed to pay for their food,electric & auto insurance or even medical insurance? let alone any other bills or emergencies that may arise? That is only speaking of a single person, the impact it has on a family of 3 or more is absurd! THIS IS A LINK TO U.S. FEDERAL MINIMUM WAGE CHART: As of right now California's Minimum Wage is $8.00 per hour which come January 2012 will be increasing to $10.24 per hour! While New York is one of the most expensive states in this country, New York's Minimum Wage will not have any change what so ever! below is a news article from the website: WASHINGTON -- Eight states will be raising their minimum wage next week, boosting the pay of more than a million workers across the country. Most of the raises will be modest, on the order of 28 to 37 cents per hour, but the new rates will translate into hundreds of additional dollars annually for many peo

Fox News' Brian Kilmeade triggered the left with his suggestion that the nation should care more about American children than illegal migrant children. "Like it or not, these are not our kids," Kilmeade said on "Fox & Friends" Friday. "Show them compassion, but it's not like he's doing this to the people of Idaho or Texas. These are people from another country." Kilmeade's point was not that Americans should not care about all children, but that all the focus on migrant children being brought to the U.S. illegally may be unfairly taking attention away from those legally part of the country. Liberals have been pushing their open borders narrative with a steady stream of outrage over the treatment of migrant children who attempt to illegally enter the U.S. with or without their parents. There was no less outrage over Kilmeade's remarks which were pounced on as "evil" and the very "definition of white supremacy." The idea of treating children differently is appalling. And to do so so to motivate a political agenda is even more so. Shameful. https://t.co/T2WnDlD46r -- Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) June 22, 2018 It's as if when they said "All Lives Matter" they didn't really mean ALL LIVES. https://t.co/ri5OSHdcI7 -- Eugene Scott (@Eugene_Scott) June 22, 2018 how is this not the definition of white supremacy https://t.co/NLrU1lCFa8 -- 332 days ago Trump promised 24-hr Hezbollah answer (@MattNegrin) June 22, 2018 This is fucking evil. Flatly, disgustingly evil. https://t.co/b0

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." -- The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution T he authors of our Bill of Rights included the Fourth Amendment because they knew that one of the best protections against tyranny is to limit the government's power to search its citizens. Specifically, the Framers wanted to ensure that the federal government could not issue broad general warrants that would empower the executive branch to indiscriminately rummage through the private lives of American citizens -- in other words, to spy on them. Unfortunately, that is exactly what the National Security Agency is doing today. No, the NSA is not secretly taping every American's phone calls. But it is collecting the "metadata" -- who called whom and when -- for every one of those calls. By themselves, each of these data points may look a lot like a harmless business records. That is why in 1979, before technology made it possible to aggregate those data points, the Supreme Court held in Smith v Maryland that the government could collect them without a warrant. But when those data points are compiled by the thousands on just one person, or by the trillions on Americans as a whole, it becomes a differen

On the third anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre that left 20 children dead, Gabby Giffords lashed out at Congress for not adopting new gun controls and singled out a key factor in their cowardice. "Congress will do exactly what its members have done every week since those 20 kindergartners and first-graders were murdered in their classrooms: nothing at all," the ex-congresswoman, who was nearly assassinated, wrote in USA Today. "That's cowardice, an embrace of the shameful status quo we've grown to expect from a Congress in the gun lobby's grip. Many of my former colleagues are in the cold clutches of pessimism and its key ingredient: fear." Electoral retribution from the National Rifle Association's political hit men is not the only place where fear contorts the realities and responses to gun violence in America. Fear drives much of the obsession with guns. It's seen in the mistaken belief that having a gun makes one safer, and in gun industry-inspired fantasies that armed Americans are heroes waiting to vanquish evildoers. Studies by scholars and others have repeatedly disproven and debunked these myths. If you think this is hyperbole, look at the following data points, poll results and excerpts from recent studies by top criminal justice researchers and experts. What most Americans believe about gun ownership is driven by fears that distort the reality of gun violence and how to lessen it. 1. Mass killings are not the worst violence . The gun-buying

Next week Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban makes his first visit to the state of Israel. This symbolic and diplomatic event, considered against a consistent record of pro-Israel support and concrete measures to confront anti-Semitism in Hungary, should bring closure to the myth, popular among the Left, global Jewish organizations, and in the world press, of Hungary's contemporary anti-Semitism. Instead of derision and conjecture, Orban deserves praise for his zero-tolerance policy on anti-Semitism and commitment to protecting all Hungarian citizens, including Hungary's Jews. Orban's July 18-20 visit is the bookend of Benjamin Netanyahu's historic trip, exactly one year ago, to Budapest, during which Mr. Orban laid out in the clearest of terms his rejection of anti-Semitism and his desire for an enhanced Hungary-Israel relationship. The Hungarian leader even took Netanyahu's visit as an opportunity to apologize for Hungary's role in the Holocaust nearly 80 years ago, stating that "Hungary erred and sinned when it cooperated with the Nazis and did not protect its Jews during World War II" and further made clear that his government will guarantee the security of the country's Jewish minority and that it has "zero tolerance for anti-Semitism." Hungary's foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto,underscored Hungary's partnership with Israel in a recent statement : "Bilateral relations between Hungary and Israel have never been as good as they are now." Szijjartoeven positioned Hungar

Kathryn Moody : Investors, Are You Ready for the Next Global Crisis? Manuel Schiffres Mutual Fund Rankings, 2014 Meghan Streit : Pitching In When Caregivers Need Help Janet Bond Brill, Ph.D., R.D.N., F.A.N.D : How to prevent a second (and first) heart attack thru diet The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington : Caprese is a light, fresh salad; the perfect quick and easy accompaniment to any summer meal Mark Steyn : You Want Nazis? Jonathan Tobin : Care about the Jewish state's future? Obama, in interview, reveals even more reasons to worry Alan M. Dershowitz : Confirmed: Needless death and destruction in Gaza Katie Nielsen : As a mother, I'm all I need to be Cameron Huddleston : 18 Retailers That Offer Price Adjustments Nellie S. Huang : The Best Health Mutual Funds to Buy Now Brierly Wright, M.S., R.D. : Try these 'secret-weapon' foods to boost your changes of losing weight The Kosher Gourmet by Jessica Yadegaran : Take some relish in pickled goodies (5 recipes!) Kimberly Lankford : 50 Ways to Cut Your Health Care Costs James K. Glassman : Investors, Are You Ready for the Next Global Crisis? The Kosher Gourmet by Nick Malgieri : Chocolate molten delight with creme anglaise is a simple yet elegant make-ahead dessert Deliberately taking a small child's life is unlawful everywhere in the world, even when the child is terminally ill and asks a doctor to end his or her suffering once and for all. There is an exception to this rule: Belgium. In 2014, that country amended its

If you're reading my writing, you're reading the thoughts of a college student who doesn't always speak kindly of his government. So even if you personally don't like Freedom of Speech, you are supporting the work of someone who does. Ha. Gotcha. You'll never escape the grasp of freedom. But you probably do like freedom. It's fun. It's good. It's American. If I were to tell you that your Freedom is being compromised by your government's inaction, you would, like any patriotic American, drop what you are doing, grab your musket, and commence Revolutionary War 3.0 (Version 2.0 failed and had too much racism). Well, my friends, I am here to tell you your freedom has been compromised. Prepare your powder, both wig and musket, for we are off to battle. Oh wait, I should probably explain exactly what we are going to war about. Freedom of Political Speech Perhaps no Constitutional Freedom is more cited -- properly and improperly -- than the freedom to speak one's mind. And rightly so. Freedom of Speech -- especially of political speech -- is protected because, without it, our populace's ability to civilly shift our nation's ideological tack is hampered. Court rulings in favor of Free Political Speech have extended to what some even consider a fault, with rulings such as Citizens United vs. The FEC in which the Supreme Court considered massive donations to candidates to be 'speech.' Suffice it to say, 'speech,' is, from the Court's perspective, not constrained to utterances emanating

Glenn Beck on Wednesday said Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton believes religious liberty "doesn't exist in America anymore if it goes against the collective knowledge." "[She] has gone further than any politician I've ever heard in my lifetime," Beck said on his radio program. "And as usual, there is so little coverage of it except here. I'm actually not sure how many people know of it. And if the American people know about it, I don't even know if they care anymore." Beck said Hillary Clinton's statement at the 2015 Women in the World Summit that " deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed " so that women can have access to reproductive health care is a "phenomenal statement that needs to be paid attention to by all Americans." "The principle that was blatantly attacked is, in fact, the bedrock principle on which this country was founded," Beck said heatedly. "You cannot violate my conscience. If I happen to believe something deeply, religiously, that's my business. I'm not in your business; don't be in my business." Glenn Beck speaks on his radio program April 29, 2015. (Photo: TheBlaze TV) "What Hillary is saying here is, it's no longer acceptable to believe something that the government doesn't believe," Beck continued. "If the government says abortion is fine, you can no longer believe that it's akin to murder. ... So your religious belief has to change." Beck said Clinton's statement was "un-American" and "an

Recently, some articles here on Redstate and elsewhere on conservative sites have noted the inevitability of universal health care for all. Bernie Sanders is taking the lead in this area. Some of my comments in response to these articles somewhat recognizes the inevitability of such a plan born of political realism, especially in light of the collapse of the repeal and replacement of Obamacare. My primary argument is that if it is to become a reality in the not-too-distant future, then the GOP should get ahead of the curve. Recent polls show that the Democrats are winning the propaganda war as a majority of Americans now report a favorable opinion towards a single payer health care system. Unfortunately, it is also an indisputable fact that when the government runs something, it usually results in a bloated bureaucracy where CBO estimates are grossly off the mark. The Veterans Administration run health care system is an example while Medicare spending is not sustainable. But before anyone rushes onto the single payer bandwagon, it is important that three points be made. The first is the constant comparisons to foreign countries that have some form of a single payer system and life outcomes. We are constantly reminded of how these countries have higher life expectancy, lower infant mortality rates, lower rates of substance abuse, lower rates of obesity, etc. This is an exercise rife with pitfalls. A decent comparison would be the United States, which lacks a universal

The United Nations has made a deal with the Palestinians to fund a $65 million legal pogrom directed at Israel. The party on the Palestinian side was referred to as the "Government of the State of Palestine." More specifically, the "United Nations System in the occupied Palestinian territory" plans to pay eight UN bodies $64,838,510 between the years of 2018 and 2022 to hunt down individual Israelis and to smear Israel as a criminal state. The eight UN bodies or agencies to receive the funds are: Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights UNICEF (the children's fund) UNRWA (the Palestinian refugee agency). Except for UNESCO, which the United States no longer supports, 22% of the money will come from American taxpayers. The deal, first signed and disseminated in Arabic on June 15, 2017, is part of the "UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) for the occupied Palestinian territory for 2018-2022." Lawfare at the UN in Israel's case goes by the stage name of "accountability." It includes accusing Israel of war crimes, apartheid, and crimes against humanity; sending spurious cases to the International Criminal Court; engaging in boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaigns to destroy the economic well-being of Israel; and making false accusations of violations of fabricated "international law" -- in particular criminalizing Israel's right of self-defense. The goal is unambiguous: the demonization and destruction of the Jewish state. Lawfare is the converse of a

This is a big issue to kids around the country and even teachers. Our law says that we can't mix religion and state, and teacher can't talk about 'going to hell if you don't believe in god'... or how 'God made us'. This made me mad when a teacher told me that I would go to hell if I don't believe in God, to which I don't. This can be a problem. Please sign this and help out all our public schools around the country! You can talk about religion in a school where it's meant for religion but not a public school. 1: It is against the constitution, unless all religions are taught to every student. 2: Parents may not want there children to learn about religions that they do not believe in. 3: It would be bad for a child to think to much about what religion is right and wrong. 4: If they should teach about christianity, they should also teach of islam, judaism, scientology, hindu, the jedi council, and pastafarianism. 5: There is not enough backing up the truthieness of any religion they would teach about. 6: People would get offended if there children start to believe in religions from school that they never wanted there children to believe in. The only school that religion should be taught in is a private school...thank you to a friend said that. "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his r

WASHINGTON -- France and Canada displayed a unified front ahead of Friday and Saturday's G7 summit, with French President Emmanuel Macron suggesting that the group of most advanced economies in the world may come to G6 agreements that leave the U.S. on the outside. The summit comes after President Trump imposed 25 percent steel and 10 percent aluminum tariffs, asserting they were necessary from a national security standpoint to bring back manufacturing jobs. Macron arrived in Charlevoix, Quebec, a day early to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. "We must try to be convincing and to keep the United States in the community of nations, but we must never sacrifice our interests or values," Macron said. He argued that a trade war will hurt American workers first, and noted that "among countries which are friends and allies, it is inappropriate to refer to national security in order to justify trade sanctions." "The six other G7 countries combined form a larger market than the American market. This must not be forgotten," he said. Macron said that Trump "may not mind being isolated, but neither do we mind signing a six-country agreement if need be." "Because these six countries represent values, they represent an economic market which has the weight of history behind it and which is now a true international force," he said. Trudeau said the message for Trump at the summit will be that "American jobs are on the line because of his actions and because of his administrat

After 50 Years Of War, A Chance At Peace By Mario Murillo, www.indypendent.org October 1, 2016 After 50 Years Of War, A Chance At Peace 2016-10-01 2016-10-01 https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.png PopularResistance.Org https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2016/10/Screen-Shot-2016-10-01-at-8.52.38-AM-150x93.png 200px 200px Above Photo: READY FOR PEACE: Two young members of the FARC rebel army in Colombia. Credit: FARC Archives Colombia's voters to decide fate of historic peace accords '"Only in Colombia do we have to vote on whether or not we want to live in peace," someone posted on Twitter recently, referring to the upcoming referendum on whether to ratify the historic peace agreement between the government of President Juan Manuel Santos and the rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). On Oct. 2, Colombians will go to the polls and answer a simple question with either a "yes" or a "no": "Do you support the final accord to end the conflict and build a stable and lasting peace?" At first glance, a yes vote sounds like a no-brainer. The conflict, which began more than a half-century ago, has killed over 220,000 Colombians, most of them poor civilians in the countryside. It has also led to one of the worst internal refugee crises in the world. Despite recent decreases, almost 7 million of Colombia's 47 million people have been forced off their land to escape the violence -- the largest popu

A number of months ago, when Republicans' collective 2018 fate was looking fairly bleak, I attended an off-the-record briefing that reviewed internal party polling, highlighting the party's strengths and weaknesses heading into a challenging midterms. The political headwinds, as they're often referred to, were blowing against Team Red -- based both on historical precedent and measurable electoral outcomes . Many of those same obstacles remain firmly in place today. But two of the bright spots that the assembled GOP gurus underscored were (a) the growing strength of the US economy, thanks to tax reform and other policies, and (b) the polarizing unpopularity of Nancy Pelosi among many independent voters. Pelosi was also a boon to her opponents, the data showed, because she polled as a strong motivating, turnout-driving factor for core Republican voters. Late last week, these two GOP advantages collided in one memorable soundbyte from the House Democratic leader. Not merely content to ridicule the "crumbs" millions of American workers are enjoying as a direct result of the tax law every Congressional Democrat voted against, Pelosi expanded her sneering to include the recent jobs numbers , which showed US unemployment falling to its lowest level since 1969. Pay attention not only to her sarcasm about the extraordinary jobs numbers, but also her follow-up assertion about the other indicators that should matter more, in her estimation: . @NancyPelosi : "Hip hip hooray, un

A new poll claims the biggest factors for California voters -- who may hold the nation's fate in their hands -- will be the 47 percent opposition to President Donald Trump's tax cut and the 54 percent support for keeping Obamacare. Democrats, who already hold 39 of California's 53 congressional seats, claim that there is a "blue wave" that could knock out many of the last 14 Republican U.S. House members in the state. The latest USC Dornsife/ Los Angeles Times poll of California registered voters found that the two strongest issues for Democrats to run on for the November elections are promises to reverse President Trump's Tax Cut and to preserve Affordable Care Act. During the 2016 presidential election, the USC Dornsife/ L.A. Times "Daybreak" poll was a controversial outlier compared to other polling firms for recognizing Donald Trump's strength during the Republican nomination process and in the general election versus Democrat Hillary Clinton. Three weeks before the election, the CalBuzz blog called thepoll a " world class flapdoodle " for calling the race a dead heat, despite polls by "reputable organizations" showing Clinton ahead by 4 to 11 percentage points. The now closely-watched 2018 USC Dornsife/ L.A. Times poll scientifically sampled 691 registered voters in the last month. With an error rate of plus or minus 4 percent, its major finding is that President Trump's miserable 70 percent unfavorable job-performance rate in the state (compared with a 30 percent appr

A new startup company called Pembient is attempting to combat the illegal trade in rhinoceros horns by creating a synthetic version which will be indistinguishable from the real thing. Using a 3D printer to create the horns out of keratin, the goal is to flood the market with these look-alikes in order to increase supply and thus reduce the market price for rhino horns. This will have the net effect of reducing the incentive for rhino poachers, since the price for their efforts will be lower. Currently, rhino horns command up to $60,000 per pound. Pembient's method is an interesting market-based approach to fighting an illegal trade, rather than relying on laws which are ineffective in this case. In fact, prohibitory laws seem to have the opposite effect of what is intended. Instead of stopping the illegal trade, they make the prohibited good more scarce, thus driving up the price and therefore the incentive for people to enter the market to trade that good. In the case of rhino horns, the current counterfeits (being made of wood or buffalo horn) are obvious fakes to educated buyers. Pembient's approach might therefore be more successful, since their counterfeits will be identical to the real thing. However, what about the laws which remain that prohibit the trade of "rhino horns?" With these laws in place, the trade of the good - whether real or counterfeit - is prohibited. This therefore still creates a price premium for the good, since there is risk involved in trading it

Decades ago in London, a rising English journalist named Paul Johnson was interviewing Prime Minister Harold Macmillan about the upcoming election. Assuming that Macmillan wanted to talk about one of his party's central campaign issues -- how to revive Britain's struggling economy and the new Tory healthcare plan -- Johnson asked one of those bland questions that give politicians the elbow room to blather on about whatever they want: "Prime Minister, what worries you the most?" Macmillan's reply, " Events, dear boy. Events! " was so unexpected, and so clever, that decades later, Johnson, who by this time had become one of Britain's greatest historians, would recount it gleefully to anyone who had the good sense and the good fortune (including me) to spend an evening with him. Well, an event just changed the course of history. Until last week, "ISIS" was a minor political issue that only a few of the more hawkish GOP candidates for president wanted to talk about. Now, after the attacks in Paris, "ISIS" may well emerge as the dominant issue of the 2016 presidential election. Before we all start arguing over what to do about ISIS, let's take some time to try and understand how it got so strong, so fast. How did a terrorist group that barely existed five years ago pull off an obviously well-planned and co-ordinated attack in Paris, bring down a Russian jetliner over Egypt and, most importantly, take over vast swaths of territory in the Mideast and create what amounts to a twenty-

Donald Trump's G-20 meeting with Vladimir Putin sent Fox News pundits into a frenzy of hate mongering about their fellow Americans who dare to criticize Dear Leader. Fox's seething smearfest began with a clip of Democratic Senator Dick Durbin blasting Trump as less knowledgeable and less experienced than Putin in the morning before their meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 in Germany yesterday. Cohost Gillian Turner began, reasonably enough, by saying "it's a little bit silly" to talk about the "psychology" of world leaders. Unless, of course, it's Fox psychiatrist Keith Ablow attacking the psychology of President Barack Obama. But guest Pet Hegseth ratcheted up the hate mongering to high as he suggested that all Democrats and "left-wing media" are traitors: HEGSETH: The most effective arm of Russian propaganda has been the Democratic Party and the left-wing media in this country which has pushed that collusion narrative since the election and before it. Someone off-camera agreed. HEGSETH: Dick Durbin is a political hack. You have to consider the source on this. I guarantee you if we rolled tape of eight years ago when Barack Obama was on his apology tour, they would be lauding him for his new sophisticated, globalist, internationalist approach. Or, when they gave him the Peace Prize? What a joke that was. The world's aflame with millions dead as a result of all the policies that he never enforced because of a weak-kneed view of the world. And he gets a Peace prize! So we fo

Last week, the Obama administration released the text of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership--a trade pact between the U.S. and 11 other Pacific Rim countries. Advocates of such deals traditionally focus on the benefits of opening new markets to U.S. exports. But good trade agreements also reduce self-destructive U.S. trade barriers. Politicians often mischaracterize imports as detrimental to economic growth and employment. But in practice, imports--no matter what their country of origin--provide huge benefits to American workers, consumers, and producers. They lead to more opportunities, greater choices, more affordable goods, and a better quality of life. It's been said that the most powerful lies often contain a grain of truth. That's certainly true for the protectionist argument that free trade "ships U.S. jobs overseas." Competition from imports has led to some lost jobs here at home. But these horror stories don't give a complete picture of free trade--because they omit mention of all the positive economic effects of imports. The increased economic activity associated with every stage of the import process helps support American jobs. One Heritage Foundation study, for example, found that imports of clothes and toys from China alone support more than a half-million American jobs. These jobs arise in virtually every economic sector, from wholesale and retail trade to transportation, construction, and finance. Furthermore, imports are vital to the operation of many Ame

Politicians have talked about a border wall since the Reagan years. Politicians on both sides of the aisle claimed they would get tough on illegal immigration, and then they got reelected and went away. They never came through, until now. After years of scheming politicians breaking promises to get serious about border security we finally have a president who is going to do something about building a wall. He's not just talking about it. He made a campaign promise, and I think it's fair to say by now that this president works hard to keep his promises. President Trump said on Wednesday that the federal government will soon begin work on a section of the wall at the border. Ironically, the first part of the wall will be built in a California city that requested the federal government build it there. This in a sanctuary state! San Diego didn't want to wait any longer, and demanded that the president begin construction of the border wall at their border. Construction is scheduled to begin soon, which you know must be pissing off the liberal elitists in California who care more for illegal aliens than their own American citizen constituents. Trump told White House reporters that San Diego asked his administration to move forward on building the wall without waiting for approval from the liberal Governor Jerry Moonbeam Brown. The city of San Diego tried and failed to lobby the governor's office for construction to begin. These politicians take an oath to protect the peop

CNN anchor Don Lemon said Roseanne Barr's "bigotry" has become common in "Trump's America," strongly implying the president and his supporters promote racism. During a segment on Tuesday night, Lemon began discussing news that ABC cancelled the hit show "Roseanne" after its star, Roseanne Barr, sent out a controversial tweet about Valerie Jarrett, a former top aide under President Barack Obama. "Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj," Barr wrote in a now deleted tweet about Jarrett. Barr has since apologized for her tweet. As noted by Mediaite , Lemon tied Barr's comments to Trump and his supporters, strongly implying that the president is responsible for fostering a culture in America that promotes bigotry and racism. Lemon called Trump racist and said his supporters display the same behavior: "We know what Donald Trump thinks. We know what Roseanne Barr thinks. It's time for us to stop playing around with soft words by saying, 'Oh, well they're saying insensitive things.' No, it's racist! They're exhibiting racist behavior. And far too many of our fellow American citizens agree with them. And feel emboldened to say out loud the things they wouldn't have dared to say in public just a few years ago. In an America where racism happens every day, in our neighborhoods, in our workplaces, in our schools, in a Starbucks, in a park, at an Airbnb, what is America going to do about it?" "We have to stop pretending that this president has nothing to do with it, that he

Print Arguments are heating up in court in California over a challenge to the state's decision to conceal the signatures of people who signed a referendum, but then had their names disqualified by county clerks, as pro-family organizations fight a legislative plan that's become known as the "coed school-bathroom bill." That law allows public school students to choose which gender-specific bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams to utilize based not on biology but on their 'self-identified gender." The law would not even require students to verify that they have a diagnosed gender orientation problem to school officials before they are granted permission to use a boys or girls locker room. Arguments began in a state courtroom over the dispute on Friday, but didn't finish, and an attorney in attendance told WND that the judge scheduled more arguments next Friday, April 18. The referendum seeks to overturn AB 1266, which was adopted last year. More than 620,000 voters signed petitions asking to have the issue put on the election ballot, but the state said only 487,000 signatures were valid, short of the number required. However, the Pacific Justice Institute , working on behalf of the Privacy for All Students coalition, said its investigation in several counties found many signatures had been wrongly disqualified. The group filed a lawsuit to challenge the disqualifications , but now it must go to court because the state says the names that were disqualified are confidential.

A t the end of the film Old Yeller (1957), the titular dog hero defends a young boy, Travis, from a rabid wolf. In the process, Old Yeller is bitten by the wolf; he soon comes down with rabies, and begins growling at Travis. Travis tearfully takes Old Yeller out to the woods and shoots him. His father explains to him, "Things like that happen. They may seem mighty cruel and unfair, but that's how life is part of the time." According to the Left, Old Yeller should have been left to his own devices; Travis's parents should have been prosecuted for negligence. How else to interpret the wildly overblown attention placed on the shooting of a gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo? For those who were either hiding under a rock or paying tribute to fallen soldiers over the Memorial Day weekend, here's the story: A mother turned her back on her four-year-old son for a moment at the zoo. The boy, being four years old, immediately climbed into the gorilla cage, where he plummeted some 15 feet into a moat. A 17-year-old, 400-plus-pound Western lowland silverback gorilla named Harambe promptly ran over to the boy, standing over him. Then, irritated by the screaming visitors, he grabbed the boy by the ankle and dragged him through the water. Zoo director Thane Maynard explained: "The child was being dragged around. His head was banging on concrete. This was not a gentle thing. The child was at risk. . . . So when it was determined that the child was being injured . . . we had to make a decision."

The Second Amendment does protect one's right to keep and bear arms, but it doesn't show citizens how to competently handle them. There's a difference between mandatory gun control and mandatory training, and training requirements and education about firearm use for gun owners could foster more respect for guns, gun ownership, and also give legal gun owners an advantage against armed criminals. This issue is especially relevant to women. Data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) produced by the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that females know their offenders in almost 64 percent of violent crimes. The percentage of female victims (22 percent) of intimate partner violence was about 4 times that of male victims (5 percent). Self-defense classes may give women a leg up, but the truth is that women are generally at a biological disadvantage when it comes to physical power. It follows that data from BJS shows that 85 percent of the time, offenders do not use a weapon in rape or sexual assault. What if these offenders (who often know their victims) also knew these women could handle a gun? Sure enough, more American women want to protect themselves. The most recent Gallup poll on firearm ownership suggests that 23 percent of American women own a gun, up 10 percent from 2005 . State laws are various in this country for purchasing weapons and obtaining concealed carry permits. Unfortunately, required training seems to be rare. The state of Hawaii requires handgun

In an unprecedented situation, on 30 th July the ratings agency Standard & Poor's declared Argentina on "selective default," after New York judge Thomas Griesa blocked the payments the country had already deposited for the 93% of creditors of its sovereign debt restructured in 2005 and 2010. Argentinean government replied that there is no default, as the country has already paid (the money is currently in hands of the Bank of New York Mellon, appointed to handle the payments) and has the resources and will to keep on paying. This rather absurd situation -a "default" with no relation to economic troubles, forced by a US judge against the will of both Argentina and its creditors- comes after ten years of a legal battle in US courts between the Argentine government and the hedge fund firm of billionaire Paul E. Singer. Singer never lent money to the country; ten years ago his firm purchased 1% of the bonds defaulted in 2001 for peanuts and refused to accept the deal that 93% of the creditors accepted after 2005, hoping to make extraordinary profits by means of a hostile legal campaign. In a ruling (by now universally considered poor and incoherent), 84-year-old judge Griesa decided that Argentina had to pay the total amount of money claimed by the vulture funds and that no payments to the restructured bonds would be allowed until the country complies. Not even bonds issued in currencies other than the US dollar and under legislation of other countries. As the prospectus of the

A DEBATE has emerged about the relationship between police and the LGBTQ community after Black Lives Matter-Toronto activists organized a sit-in at last year's Toronto Pride parade to demand a host of inclusion and safety measures, including an end to a uniformed police presence at Pride. Toronto Pride organizers initially agreed with all of Black Lives Matter's demands, but later changed their position on the demand to kick the cops out of Pride, creating a rift in the queer liberation movement between those in solidarity with Black Lives Matter-Toronto and those holding onto the respectability of Pride parades populated by major corporations and gay police contingents. This debate is taking place at a time when corporate sponsorship and police involvement are common to Pride parades all over the world--and, we believe, incorporate politics that are fundamentally foreign to the radical roots of the movement for LGBTQ liberation. In response, the Washington, D.C.-based No Justice No Pride is calling for an end to "the LGBTQ movement's collusion with systems of oppression that further marginalize queer and trans individuals." Their demands include eliminating corporate sponsorship of Pride and a ban on both corporations and police from participating in Pride celebrations. Police officers show support for demonstrators at a pride march in Washington, D.C. (Elvert Barnes | flickr) When corporations like Wells Fargo--which helped sponsor the construction of the Dakota Access Pipe

Free sign up cp newsletter! A number of prominent Protestant leaders, including Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell Jr., are criticizing Pope Francis for implying yesterday that Donald Trump's intention to build a wall on the southern border is "not Christian." After the Pontiff chastised Trump's desire to build the wall instead of "building bridges" in a conversation with reporters during his return flight home from Mexico, the real estate mogul responded Thursday by saying that it is "disgraceful" for a religious leader to question a person's faith. Falwell, the president of Liberty University who endorsed Trump for president earlier this year, told CNN that the Pope's comments would cause America's first Catholic president, John F. Kennedy, to roll over in his grave. "I think the Pope is mistaken. I think John F. Kennedy would be rolling over in his grave right now if he could hear what the Pope was saying," Falwell, the son of the late televangelist Jerry Falwell Sr., said. "That's a man who fought to be president against lots of prejudice because many Protestants in this country did not want to elect a Catholic president. He broke down those barriers and here is the Pope trying to say ... we have to choose leaders that share his faith, the Christian faith." Although the Pope explicitly said in his conversation that he was not going to get involved in American politics by telling believers who they should vote for, Falwell contended that the Pope fully intended to get invo

Friday, August 2nd, 2013 Friday, August 2nd, 2013 Fierce Dreams Green Anarchist Gathering in Australia Fierce Dreams is a 3 day gathering that will be occurring from October 18 th to 20 th 2013 in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, Australia. The exact location will be decided closer to the date and published on this site. This event will be an anarchist encampment/autonomous zone aimed at breaking down the barrier civilisation puts between us all. Over the course of the gathering we hope to explore the wilderness around us and the wildness within ourselves. Through organising this event we hope to build stronger connections based on anti-civilisation theory, green anarchist philosophy and the practice of rewilding. As anarchists, we oppose domination and oppression against humans, nonhumans and the earth. We recognise the hierarchical nature and destructiveness inherent in civilised culture and wish to see its permanent end as soon as possible. Our focus will be on methods to resist control in our everyday lives. We want to reduce our dependency on civ, and discuss possibilities for rewilding, no matter where you choose to live (urban, remote or in between). Together we will talk, weave, play music, gather, make fires, play games and explore ideas relating to a vision of life beyond mass society. We will work to undo the domestication that civilisation has strongly conditioned us to believe as 'normal'. We aim to forge links between those of us who will not accept the damag

Researchers out of San Diego State University found that the United States is becoming more tolerant than ever of communists, atheists, LGBT people and more. The only groups for which Americans didn't become more tolerant were of people who believed black people were "genetically inferior." Researchers concluded that, "Americans have become increasingly tolerant of controversial beliefs and lifestyles (i.e., marginalized outgroups). They are more likely to believe that homosexuals, Communists, militarists, and the anti-religious have the right to give speeches, teach at a college, and have a book in a local library. Smaller increases appeared in tolerance for a person who claims that Blacks are genetically inferior (commonly labeled a racist)." The study , to be published this month in the journal Social Forces , found that American adults surveyed this decade were far more tolerant of minority groups or voices than adults surveyed in the 1970s. Researchers Jean M. Twenge, Nathan T. Carter, and W. Keith Campbell used the General Social Survey, which surveys a nationally representative sample of adults on a variety of attitudes and ideas, and defined tolerance as "agreeing that controversial outgroups should be allowed public expression." This meant that Americans were more likely to believe that "Communists, homosexuals, the anti-religious, militarists, and those believing Blacks are genetically inferior should be allowed to give a public speech, teach at a college, or have a

Last week we talked about the qualitative difference between Catholicism and Protestantism, as well as all the other manmade religions. We made the comparison to the difference between gold and peanut butter. Yes, there is the Catholic Church -- and then all the rest. And it is not mean or uncharitable or anything of the kind to speak of them in that regard, because it sums up their essence. The point of religion is to save you, in at least a very general sense of the word. But within Christianity, the specific point of religion is to save you. So how is it rude, mean, nasty, offensive, uncharitable, intolerant or judgmental to say that no protestant denomination has the power to save? They don't. Their ministers have no more power or authority than I do as a Catholic layman. Their bishops are not bishops, their priests are not priests, and their churches are not churches. For any Catholic who understands the substantive difference between a religion that has the power to save because it was invested with this power directly by the Son of God, and a religion that has no power to save -- to compare them and speak of them as being relatively equal is degrading and embarrassing So when Catholic priests and bishops and dioceses, trying to shore up their flagging numbers owing to their decades of lack of Faith instruction, turn to a protestant program of catechesis to try and instruct people in Catholicism, then those people are worthless in their roles. But that is exactly what

. @ZackFord Come and get me, Mary. -- GayPatriot 2.0 (@GayPatriot) February 13, 2017 We aren't afraid of you. @RichardGrenell @GayPatriot https://t.co/sDgduk7DXL -- Ryan B. Leslie (@RyanBLeslie) February 13, 2017 Over the weekend , a New York Times opinion piece wondered how anyone in the LGBT could possibly identify as Republican. ThinkProgress' LGBT editor Zack Ford has evidently decided to take that a step further, coming out and boldly proclaiming that LGBT conservatives give up their legitimacy when they call themselves conservative -- and they deserve to be shamed and marginalized for it: Thank you for this @SkylarJordan ! No gay conservatives, I won't accept your 'coming out' as Trump supporters - https://t.co/SNya5j2SLW -- Zack Ford (@ZackFord) February 13, 2017 I feel like there is a growing (or at least more vocal) group of conservatives claiming legitimacy on LGBT issues because they're gay. -- Zack Ford (@ZackFord) February 13, 2017 But what these homocons advocate and who they support are quite harmful to LGBT people and their equality. -- Zack Ford (@ZackFord) February 13, 2017 It's like GOProud/LCR on steroid s-- people not just defending conservatives on LGBT issues, but having very big platforms for doing so. -- Zack Ford (@ZackFord) February 13, 2017 Just because you have enough privilege to not care about LGBT equality doesn't mean your positions are valid or worthy because you're gay. -- Zack Ford (@ZackFord) February 13, 2017 But this is a real phenomenon

RABAT, Morocco (AP) -- The 2026 World Cup contest has been engulfed in intrigue about whether Donald Trump's rhetoric on immigration and foreign policy will cost North America votes. What's barely talked about is the impact of a territorial conflict that is impeding Morocco's bid. Heavily criticized by FIFA for the lack of infrastructure and LGBT protections, Morocco's claims on Western Sahara also appear to be a factor for some football federations heading into Wednesday's FIFA vote. The former Spanish colony annexed by Morocco in 1975 features within the map of the country in its bid book. It's why rights groups are urging football federations not to vote for Morocco. "FIFA has conducted an evaluation of Morocco's application, but has completely ignored the Western Sahara case," the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara wrote in a letter this week to the Norwegian Football Association advising it not to vote for Morocco. "The FIFA evaluation has even failed to draw up the border between Morocco and Western Sahara in its map." The last piece of land remaining on the United Nations' list of "non-self-governing territories," Western Sahara is one of the most sensitive topics in Morocco, which considers the large, mineral-rich territory its "southern provinces" and fiercely defends against anything considered a threat. The Polisario Front, a liberation movement, aims to end Moroccan presence in its proclaimed Sahrawi Republic and insists on self-determination through a

Mamma mia, here we go again. The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, a body whose raison d'etre is to protect the interests of elderly homeowners and fields, has produced the latest edition of its State of the Green Belt report. Does it conclude that the green belt is in a pretty fine kind of a state, sitting smugly around the place as it chokes off productivity growth and prevents us from building the houses that we need? No it does not. The Green Belt remains under severe pressure, despite government commitments to its protection, according to a new report from the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE). CPRE's annual State of the Green Belt report highlights that there are currently 460,000 homes being planned to be built on land that will soon be released from the Green Belt. There's even a TERRIFYING CHART to illustrate the problem: Now. Regular readers will know my position on all this. The green belt is a decades-old planning policy, designed to prevent sprawl at a time when our cities were shrinking in population and, anyway, had plenty of spare land that had helpfully been cleared by the Luftwaffe. Many of those cities are today facing a housing crisis which is in large part the result of a shortage of housing supply. That, in turn, is the result of a shortage of available land on which to build. So, if London or Oxford or Bristol are to build enough homes to meet demand, there are really only two options: build up, by densifying existing parts of the cit

It makes for an illogical syllogism. Premise A: Lesbians are sexually attracted to women only. Premise B: Women cannot impregnate women. Conclusion: Lesbians have higher pregnancy rates than non-lesbian women. It's contrary to all reason, but it's true. Lesbians have significantly higher pregnancy rates than their heterosexual peers. It's also true for teen gay males . They are substantially more likely to impregnate their sexual partners than are heterosexual males. image credit: Minneapolis StarTribune Multiple studies with samples drawn from various nations find that sexual-minority youth aged fourteen to nineteen have pregnancy rates two to seven times greater than their heterosexual peers. Their pregnancy rates continue to rise , even though the overall teen pregnancy rate is declining in the United States. Only one study to date has examined the pregnancy rates of adult sexual-minority women who are eighteen to forty-four years old. Published late last year, it reveals the same thing: unintended pregnancies are higher among sexual-minority women than their heterosexual peers. Their proportion for ending pregnancies by abortion is double that of heterosexual women. Clearly something's up here, and it is doubtful that the rules of human reproduction have drastically evolved. Clearly these pregnancies cannot all be assigned to bisexuals. Still, it is curious that those who go both ways still have higher pregnancy rates than heterosexuals. The numbers among those

By Robert Percival | (The Conversation) | - - Donald Trump's election has jolted environmentalists and voters who care about conservation. Trump has called for abolishing or greatly shrinking the Environmental Protection Agency ; declared climate change a Chinese hoax ; and promised to "cancel" the Paris climate agreement . Though Trump appears to have backed off his pledge to "get rid of [EPA] in almost every form," his choice of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head the agency set off alarms in the environmental community. Environmentalists were quick to denounce Pruitt, calling him an opponent of EPA who built his reputation by doing the bidding of fossil fuel industries. Is his appointment really like putting "an arsonist in charge of fighting fires," as the Sierra Club argues ? Pruitt's anti-EPA legal activism: Many lawsuits, few wins A close look at Pruitt's record reveals that he is a very smart, charismatic lawyer and passionate baseball fan who professes to care about protecting the environment. But his swift rise to national prominence was built on anti-EPA legal activism. Since his election as Oklahoma's attorney general in 2010, Pruitt repeatedly has brought lawsuits claiming that EPA is illegally and unconstitutionally trampling states' rights. These claims have won him praise in conservative circles, but little success in court. Pruitt's signature legal issue was his fight to block EPA from requiring coal-fired power plants in Oklahoma to install scrubb

Officials that are close to Trump have raised some concerns over his understanding of the DACA, and it could have some serious ramifications. Background: The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was an Obama era policy that allows certain illegal immigrants who were minors when they entered to apply for a renewable two-year period of deferred deportation that allows them to apply for a work permit. Reports have surfaced recently that suggest that Trump is seriously considering removing the program. Former President Obama predicted this would happen in his final press conference as president. "The notion that we would just arbitrarily or because of politics punish those kids when they didn't do something themselves ... would merit my speaking out," Barack Obama stated. The whole point of this was to help immigration officials to not have to focus their efforts on individuals who behave and to focus their attention to more dangerous people. More than that, if this program is removed, you'll be hurting people who have done absolutely nothing wrong. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D) have officially announced that they will sue President Trump if he tries to end DACA. "Dreamers are Americans in every way. They played by the rules. They pay their taxes. And they've earned the right to stay in the only home they have ever known," Cuomo stated. What's Happening Now: Trump's staffers have some serious concerns about whether pres

Hundreds of students from West Boca Raton High School staged a walkout on Tuesday and marched several miles toward the site of a deadly mass shooting last week, the Miami Herald reported. The students are marching about seven miles to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where a gunman killed 17 people on Wednesday. Students from West Boca Raton Community High School walk down Loxahatchee Road during a passive walk out. Students walked all the way to Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school. Pic by @SunSentinel @abennettphoto https://t.co/CokHttywKn pic.twitter.com/X1RBATKge2 -- Sun Sentinel Photos (@PhotoSSentinel) February 20, 2018 The mass student walkout is an attempt to show solidarity with the students who survived the massacre and to call for action on gun control, CBS News reported. High school students in Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood, Fla., also walked out on Tuesday, and students in Hialeah, Fla., are planning a walkout Wednesday, according to The Miami Herald . Dozens of students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are currently on a bus headed to the Florida state Capitol this week to demand action from lawmakers. WATCH: Students from Florida's West Boca High School have walked out of their classes, heading towards Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, as part of a call-to-action by students in the area after the mass shooting last week that killed 17 people https://t.co/JoGj3r547e pic.twitter.com/yqeNwj9PVM -- CBS News (@CBSNews) February 20

Bowery Mission Opens Manhattan's Only Faith-Based Women's Shelter Free sign up cp newsletter! By Stoyan Zaimov , Christian Post Reporter | Nov 21, 2012 11:15 AM NEW YORK - The Bowery Mission, one of the oldest and largest charity organizations in New York City, has opened a newly-renovated transitional home for formerly homeless women in Harlem this week, providing them further security as they get back on their feet. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly were present at the unveiling of The Bowery Mission Women's Center in Harlem Tuesday, as was James Winans, the Chief Development Officer at The Bowery Mission. Winans told The Christian Post that by opening this women's center, the Christian organization seeks to provide women with "one of the practical things that they need." "We have eight newly renovated apartments for our graduates to live in," he explained, noting that The Bowery Mission has been serving the homeless for 133 years. The Women's Center is currently the only faith-based residential recovery program for homeless women in Manhattan, he said. "In 2005 we extended our care to women by opening a women's center on the Upper East Side for twenty women recovering from homelessness, addiction or abuse, and they go through a Christian program of recovery," Winans told CP, adding that around 60 people attended Tuesday's ceremony. "When they graduate, they are connected with friends and family, they are clean and sober, they have a job and a pla

OTTAWA, May 4, 2012 ( LifeSiteNews.com ) - With the National March for Life in Ottawa less than a week away, the youth arm of Campaign Life Coalition, CLC Youth, is again offering their popular pro-life t-shirts, but with a new twist this year. The front of the shirt typically states "I am/I love pro-life." But this year, in order to give politicians a message that youth will no longer abide lukewarm or hostile sentiments towards life issues from their parliamentarians, "I vote pro-life" has been added to the other messages. "This year we wanted to include the 'I vote' part because this is an important element of being pro-life," Alissa Golob, coordinator for Campaign Life Coalition's youth division, told LifeSiteNews. "CLC Youth really wanted to convey this message to young people who are just beginning to be able to take advantage of their civic duty." "CLC Youth thought of the design because we wanted to make statement shirts that people could wear to demonstrate their pro-life views," Alissa explained, but added that, with the subject of abortion having been brought up in the House of Commons through MP Stephen Woodworth's historic motion , the time is right to let youth express a political statement as well as show they are pro-life. Woodworth's motion calls for Parliament to establish a special committee to consider when human life begins. "At a time when the abortion debate is being brought up in the House of Commons, CLC Youth wanted to convey the message to all parli

"Unlike the wolves, sheepdogs have great amounts of empathy for the sheep. They care so much for the sheep, that they put themselves between the flock and wolves." I would love to be able to have a rational conversation with those who oppose the 2 nd Amendment. However, I don't believe it's possible. See, rational is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as, "a: having reason or understanding; b: relating to, based on, or agreeable to reason." Reason, of course, is the ability to use and understand logic. The only thing that the left is capable of doing is having an emotional discussion which is defined by the same dictionary as, "markedly aroused or agitated in feeling or sensibilities." In other words, their ability to use logic is overwhelmed by feelings of frustration caused by a lack of control over the world around them. In 2010, prior to me leaving Fort Campbell, I was privileged to attend a seminar by LTC(R) Dave Grossman. Grossman is the author of the books On Killing and On Combat . His books discuss his study of killing and its effect on the human spirit. He basically breaks down people into three categories. Sheep: People who cannot accept the realities of evil in our world. They will panic and often freeze when faced with human atrocities because they simply cannot rationalize what is happening. They hate anything to do with violence and will therefore simply deny its existence whenever possible. They will do so to their own detriment because they go through

Leave this field empty if you're human: Canada has a serious problem with its 'No-Fly' list, and it is time that the government did something about it, as it is causing problems for Canadian citizens. The main problem is the lack of a proper system, which will distinguish between security threats and names matching those security threats. There have been plenty of examples in recent times related to the 'high profile' nature of the no-fly risk. There have been youngsters and teenagers caught up in the mess, which has led to calls for a revamp of the 'No-Fly' list. The number of people getting caught inaccurately on the no-fly risk is increasing, and the government is still not doing anything to resolve this problem. The problem lies in the system, which is extremely poor in identifying security threats, and is very unreliable in nature. The problem is compounded by the fact that the Trudeau government is ignoring security experts, and hasn't come up with any plans to fix the 'No-Fly' list, which is managed by border service agencies, Department of Public Safety, and Transport Canada. It makes sense that the departments in charge of managing the border, transportation, and safety manage this list. However, the government seems to think that it isn't a dangerous problem, which isn't the right attitude to take towards a matter of national security. Canadians are already wary of the dangers posed at airports, but the lax attitude of the government to fix the 'No-Fly' list is putt

Rachel DiCarlo Currie In 2005, George Will described Manhattan Institute scholar Heather Mac Donald as "the indispensable journalist" -- someone who is "uniquely qualified to burn away the cant and political correctness that so follows our discourse." Today, Mac Donald is more indispensable than ever. In fact, amid our current national debate over race, crime, and policing, she may be America's most important public-policy analyst. (Full disclosure: She is also a friend of my husband's.) If you've read a Heather Mac Donald article, you'll know that she combines firsthand reporting with a relentless focus on empirical data. For years now, she has interviewed both police officers and the inner-city residents they are sworn to protect. It was Mac Donald's research and writing -- most notably, her May 2015 Wall Street Journal article titled " The New Nationwide Crime Wave " -- that first popularized the notion of a "Ferguson effect" on U.S. law enforcement. Drawing on hard numbers and testimony from urban officials, she showed that the relentless demonization of cops following the August 2014 death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, had led to a reduction in proactive policing, which in turn had fueled a sharp rise in violence across many American cities. Speaking at the University of Chicago Law School in October 2015, FBI director James Comey said he had "a strong sense" that the Ferguson effect was real. "Most of America's 50 largest cities have seen an increase in homici

Cortney wrote about the horrific shooting in Paris this afternoon, where police officers were targeted. One police officer is confirmed to be have been killed in the attack. The shooting occurred in the Champs Elysees Avenue of the French capital. President Francois Hollande said that he's convinced that this incident is terror-related and French prosecutors have launched a terrorism investigation. The suspect was reportedly flagged as an extremist, according to the Associated Press. Now, the Islamic State has claimed responsibility (via WaPo ): BREAKING: The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack that killed a Paris police officer. -- The Associated Press (@AP) April 20, 2017 A gunman opened fire on French police Thursday on a renowned Paris boulevard, killing one and wounding two others before being fatally shot himself in an incident that shook France just three days before a crucial election. The French Interior Ministry, confirming the shooting, said two police officers were "seriously wounded" and that security forces gunned down the attacker. The ministry said the person fired on a police car. Two officials said the gunman used an assault rifle. French news media, citing the Islamic State-affiliated Amaq news agency, reported that the terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that it was carried out by a Belgian national identified only as Abu Yusuf. It was not immediately possible to confirm that the Islamic State was behind

Thanksgiving provides the perfect opportunity each year to dwell on the many blessings we have from God. Ever since George Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation , the United States of America has paused our lives, no matter what is going on, to give thanks to God for all he's done for us. I was recently reading President Calvin Coolidge's Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1925 (read it in its entirety below) and reflecting on how our moment in U.S. history is similar and different from his. Like President Coolidge, I am more grateful every day for the God-given rights enshrined in our Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution. I'm thankful and honored to have had the opportunity to defend the right of every American to live out their faith in everything they do - before the Supreme Court of the United States, on Capitol Hill, in the media, and across this great land. I'm also thankful for the inherent dignity found in every single human life made in the image of God. That's why the ACLJ continues fighting in federal court on behalf of pro-life pregnancy resource centers, college students denied admission because of their faith, and others simply serving the most vulnerable members of our society sacrificially every day to make their communities better and stronger places. Unlike the time in which President Coolidge wrote, the world is not a safe and peaceful place right now. With jihadists and dictators flexing their muscles, committing historic evils, and threatenin

Trump calls Obama, Clinton Islamic State 'co-founders,' draws rebuke By Ginger Gibson and Steve Holland Reuters August 12. 2016 12:31AM Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee, Fla., on Thursday. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel/TNS) Trump says his comment that Obama and Clinton were founders of ISIS was sarcastic WASHINGTON/MIAMI BEACH, Fla., - Republican Donald Trump called President Barack Obama and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton the "co-founders" of Islamic State, ratcheting up his assertion that they are responsible for the rise of the militant group and sparking renewed criticism of his leadership ability. Clinton's White House campaign on Thursday called the remarks a "false claim," in Clinton's latest response to a series of attacks by Trump in which he has sought to portray America as less safe, blaming Democrats and depicting himself as the only one who can restore security. Democrats, in turn, have used Trump's often hyperbolic statements ahead of the Nov. 8 election to argue that he is unfit to be president and lacks the temperament to be trusted with matters of national security. "This is another example of Donald Trump trash-talking the United States," Clinton senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement. "What's remarkable about Trump's comments is that once again he's echoing the talking points of Putin and our adversaries to attack American leaders and American interests

For several weeks now, the political class has made a parlor game of guessing why Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) so obsequiously reversed his long-held misgivings about President Trump. Graham's about face began pretty early in the Trump presidency, but gained widespread attention at the end of November, shortly after he told CNN, "what concerns me about the American press is this endless, endless attempt to label [Trump] some kind of kook not fit to be president." Enterprising reporters quickly dug up this Graham quote from February 2016--"I think he's a kook. I think he's crazy. I think he's unfit for office"--and the jokes wrote themselves. Even before then, though, Graham had become one of the most innovative participants in the Republican Party's efforts to discredit Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russian election meddling investigation, and to help Trump cover up his campaign's complicity in that influence operation. He has made baseless calls for multiple, diversionary special counsel investigations of Democrats and Hillary Clinton, and more recently referred Christopher Steele--a former British intelligence officer who blew the whistle on the Trump campaign--to the FBI to be criminally investigated on the basis of secret evidence. In between, he tweeted a commercial endorsement of one of Trump's golf clubs. Because Graham is chatty with the press, and has a not-inconsequential history of taking heterodox stances on major policy issues, he has benefited from a widespr

Debate sets record for Dems, but trails GOP's TV audience From Wire Reports October 14. 2015 8:36PM From left, former U.S. Senator Jim Webb, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley and former Governor of Rhode Island Lincoln Chafee pose before the start of the first official Democratic candidates debate of the 2016 presidential campaign in Las Vegas Tuesday. (REUTERS/Mike Blake) Democratic Debate Polls Who won Tuesday night's Democratic presidential primary debate? Lincoln Chaffee 1% Hillary Clinton 31% Martin O'Malley 3% Bernie Sanders 50% Jim Webb 15% Total Votes: 194 Has the war on drugs done more harm than good? Yes 71% No 21% Not sure 9% Total Votes: 188 Is Jim Webb right to be skeptical as to the practicality of legislating the costly Democratic wish list for expansion of social welfare programs in America? Yes 62% No 28% Ambivalent 10% Total Votes: 174 If you had to pick, which would you rather have? Obamacare 20% Universal healthcare 80% Total Votes: 175 Should Hillary Clinton be given a pass on any illegality or irregularities regarding her private email server, as Bernie Sanders suggests? Yes 24% No 68% Ambivalent 8% Total Votes: 234 LAS VEGAS -- Sharing a stage for the first time, Hillary Rodham Clinton and her Democratic challengers hashed out their differences over guns, foreign policy and Wall Street regulation in a pointed but largely polite debate that underscored the broad consensus amo

Netanyahu Admits Sabotage Of Iran Talks His Primary Mission By Sarah Lazare, www.commondreams.org February 28, 2015 Netanyahu Admits Sabotage Of Iran Talks His Primary Mission 2015-02-28 2015-02-28 https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.png PopularResistance.Org https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2015/02/Screen-Shot-2015-02-28-at-7.45.18-AM-150x91.png 200px 200px Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu being interviewed by CNN's Wolf Blitzer in 2011. (Photo: IsraelinUSA/flickr/cc) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged on Tuesday that the purpose of his upcoming visit to Washington, D.C. is to do "everything I can" to prevent a nuclear deal between global powers and Iran--an admission that critics say reveals he is pushing for military escalation and potentially war. "This agreement, if indeed it is signed, will allow Iran to become a nuclear threshold state," Netanyahu declared in a statement released Tuesday, according to media reports . "It is my obligation as prime minister to do everything that I can to prevent this agreement." "Therefore," he continued, "I will go to Washington... because the American Congress is likely to be the final brake before the agreement." Analysts say that the prime minister's push to undermine the diplomatic process is ultimately a call for dangerous military escalation. According to Jamal Abdi of the National Iranian American Council, who spoke with Common

If you are a smoker, you better not lie about your smoking habit on your insurance proposal form. Don't be shocked, people do lie. Sample this: Firstpost did a dip-stick survey and found that nearly 66.6 percent of the respondents said they would lie on their insurance proposal form, about their smoking habits. Interestingly, the reasons for withholding such an important detail is varied. "I am a social smoker and that doesn't matter," one of the respondents said. "If I mention that I smoke, they would exclude the smoking-related diseases from my insurance cover," another one said. "I don't want to pay extra just because I am a smoker," pointed out yet another. There a few things you need to know as a smoker: Representational image. Reuters Life Insurance: Anuj Bhagia, CMO, Policybazaar.com, said, "Generally, when it comes to a term life cover, a smoker has to pay 10-15 percent higher premiums, compared with non-smokers." For instance, if a term life insurance for a smoker costs Rs 18,090, the same policy would cost a non-smoker Rs 11,910. Health Insurance: As far as health insurance goes there aren't any differential premiums for smokers and non-smokers. In a recent interaction, Shankar Nath, head-marketing and director, ICICI Lombard GIC Ltd, said, "As of now, insurance companies do not charge a different or higher premium to smokers." However, things might change in the future. Looking at global trends, even Indian insurance companies will eventually start charging smokers

North Korea has been a top foreign policy priority since President Donald Trump settled into the Oval Office. The president has repeatedly expressed his intention to "solve" the North Korean crisis, emphasizing that all policy options -- including military actions -- are on the table. But there are no good military options for dealing with North Korea. U.S. military action will certainly not de-escalate tensions on the Korean peninsula. Indeed, it could drag our ally in the south into an involuntary game of Russian roulette, leaving Seoul's civilian population of more than 25 million vulnerable to devastating artillery shelling -- or worse -- from the North. And military options are not likely to achieve the primary U.S. objective: a denuclearized North Korea. The merit and likelihood of the United States using military options against North Korea aside, what is perhaps equally alarming is the lack of conversation regarding the necessity of developing and implementing comprehensive contingency plans to deal with potential instability in North Korea. North Korea could be destabilized by domestic events -- such as a high-level coup or humanitarian crisis -- as well as by the actions of foreign powers. While no one can predict with certainty if, when, and how a collapse will occur, that does not mean the United States cannot or should not prepare for them. There are at least three known contingency plans -- plans about which the public knows little. My own conversations with U

This is what conservatives like me and Andy McCarthy get for arguing that Antifa, as odious as it is, shouldn't be considered a terrorist organization. That charge is too loaded politically. Toss it lightly at a domestic group, even one that does practice violence, and you're encouraging the public to strip the members of their civil rights. Good luck getting traction once that slippery slope is in place. Yet that's exactly what Olby's after. The idea of NRA members losing their rights isn't a bug in his scheme, it's a feature. He doesn't believe the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right of gun ownership, ergo you're a terrorist for believing it does. Ideally you'll lose that right if his side prevails politically. For all his flaws, the man doesn't sugarcoat his positions. The most notable thing about this shpiel is how all over the map it is in running through the familiar anti-gun legal arguments. On the one hand, Olbermann insists that the Second Amendment guarantees a collective right to individual states to keep arms for their own protection; in that case, we needn't worry much about the sophistication of the weapons. They're in responsible hands, after all, and significant firepower would be necessary to resist federal tyranny. On the other hand, he notes that the Founders never imagined weapons with the firepower of the ones we have today, that the Second Amendment was written when muskets were state of the art, the implication being that technology has rend

Which presidential candidate said this in an ad: "I refuse to make your family pay more so that millionaires can pay less?" Who promised to "fight for seniors" against opponents who wanted to "slash Medicare?" If you answered President Barack Obama, you're about 27 years too late. Those pronouncements came from an ad for Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro, the Democratic pols who ran against Ronald Reagan in 1984. (Mondale's ticket lost to Reagan in a landslide, winning only one state.) This year Obama is pushing the same themes as Mondale, and other former Democratic presidential candidates. The video comes from The Living Room Candidate, a website launched in 2008 by the Museum of the Moving Image. Watch Mondale and Ferraro: It's not just Mondale and Ferraro whose messaging is seeing rebirth. If you're nostalgic for the days of side-ponytails and Molly Ringwald, dust off your parachute pants and your fingerless gloves because the Democratic National Committee's current messaging against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney seems like an eighties retread. Decades before the DNC launched its WhichMitt.com website to highlight Romney's alleged issue flip-flops, President Jimmy Carter's 1980 re-election campaign aired "Flipflop," an ad attacking Ronald Reagan for changing his position on nuclear proliferation. "In this debate, in this whole campaign, Governor Reagan has changed important positions to get votes and then blandly tried to wipe out the earlier position," says

Young conservatives Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens wasted no time speaking out after being attacked for their political views in a Philadelphia restaurant. The activists recorded the horrendous scene and posted it to social media where it went viral Monday morning. Kirk and Owens who both work for Turning Point USA later sat down on Fox News Channel's Hannity where they said they are not looking to press charges, but they do place a lot of the blame for the uncivilized mob squarely on Rep. Maxine Waters. Fox News host Sean Hannity opened the segment by reminding viewers about other attacks against high-profile people for the political associations. "Pam Bondi, secretary Nielsen, Sarah Sanders, Melania trump, Ivanka Trump, a 12-year-old kid, Barron trump, a 4-year-old granddaughter, Chloe trump. The media talks about them because they say, 'you suck.' You, actually got physically assaulted," Hannity said. Kirk explained that he had several things thrown at him including a glass of water and an egg, but pointed out that the they were at the restaurant minding their own business when a mob of about 50 raging lunatics quickly mobilized (on a Monday morning. No jobs?) "Correct," Kirk began. "Water thrown on myself, they threw an egg at me. "Here's the interesting part, Candace and I were just minding our own business. We were just having a quiet breakfast and they mobilized within 20 or 30 minutes, at least 50 of them, came into the restaurant and started calling Candace a Nazi,

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, easily one of the most respected business advocacy groups in the nation, recently released a report titled The Growing Burden of Unfunded EPA Mandates on the States . The paper details how EPA mandates have over time chipped away at the cooperative federalism model that has long undergirded the agency's relationship with the states, a theme that has been explored by ALEC over the years, most notably in the 2012 report titled The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Assault on State Sovereignty . Today, the relationship between EPA and the states more closely resembles a command and control model. When Congress passed the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and a host of other environmental laws over 40 years ago, they intended for states to work equally with EPA as partners in carrying out environmental policy- and regulatory-making. Under such a model, states would implement national environmental policy through their own environmental regulatory agencies. In exchange, the federal government would provide technical assistance and funding to help implement these changes. Indeed, the Clean Air Act was explicitly designed to provide states with funding to cover 60 percent of their program costs. Today, the states are responsible for implementing approximately 96.5 percent of federal environmental laws and roughly 90 percent of environmental inspections. In a survey conducted by the Chamber (of which 39 states responded, with 30 providing sufficient in

S o, "a United Airlines jet returned to a Washington airport Monday night after passengers pounced on a man who rushed toward the cockpit yelling 'Jihad! Jihad!' officials and witnesses said." (The rest of the story is here .) Look, we all know that "jihad" refers simply to an internal spiritual struggle, which we all must undertake. I condemn Islamophobia, exemplified by those paranoid and hateful passengers. May I have the Nobel Peace Prize, please? ‐I was startled to see this: "Venezuela has placed a full page ad in the New York Times to reject what it says are 'tyrannical' attempts by the U.S. to undermine its socialist system." (Rest of the story here .) I think governments and individuals alike can leave it to New York Times editorialists to reject attempts to undermine socialism. Why spring for those expensive ads, especially when oil revenue is down? ‐"Harvard's president speaks in China about climate change." Uh huh, that makes sense. (For the article, go here .) I'm reminded of the new secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, in February 2009. On a trip to Asia, she said that the Obama administration would not let human rights "interfere" with such urgent issues as "the global climate-change crisis." The Left is amazingly consistent. If only we could get them to consider, say, the Castro brothers a threat to the climate, and not just human beings under their control. In any event, I have the impression that the Harvard president, Drew Faust, is more attuned to

CTH has called out the anti-American economic positions of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for many years . The U.S. CoC is the largest DC lobbying group for multinational corporations and multinational financial interests. The CoC is at the very epicenter of the financial constructs that support the Washington DC UniParty. When President Trump won the election in 2016 it was a thundershock to decades of work by the U.S. CoC to undermine economic nationalism in favor of global corporate interests. Within all of the economic, trade and policy discussion which subsequently flowed from the White House the CoC did not have a seat at the table . Trump's economic policy is adverse to the interests of The Big Club. Today the CoC is taking a direct and adversarial position to oppose the White House and the intended framework (Trump, Ross, Lighthizer) for a renegotiated NAFTA deal. The U.S. CoC is aligning with Canada and Mexico against the interests of the United States. While predicted , it is a little surreal to see the U.S. CoC drop their mask so openly: WASHINGTON DC - The Chamber of Commerce warned Friday that the Trump administration appears to be on the path to pulling out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, on the eve of the fourth round of talks to renegotiate that deal. "Today we are increasingly concerned with the state of play with the negotiations," John Murphy, the chamber's senior vice president for international policy, told reporters Friday. He said the admi

President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order Monday to withdraw the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal. Withdrawing from the TPP is one of the many actions Trump promised to take on first day of his term of office . Dan Spencer The TPP is a 12-country deal that was meant to liberalize trade between the U.S. and Pacific Rim nations including Japan, Mexico and Singapore, was one of former President Obama's signature achievements. Congress's approved the "fast track" authorization for the agreement in 2015. It was signed by the U.S. but was not ratified. Trump will start individual trade negotiations with the countries in the partnership. Negotiations for the new trade deals will be headed by Commerce Secretary-designate Wilbur Ross, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and the head of the White House Trade Council, Peter Navarro. Trump also announced his plans to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA): "We will be starting negotiations having to do with NAFTA," Trump said Sunday at a swearing-in ceremony for his top White House advisers. "We are going to start renegotiating on NAFTA, on immigration and on security at the border." Announcing that he would negotiate changes to NAFTA is also something Trump promised to take on first day of his term of office .

In light of the recent one-year anniversary of President Donald Trump's first unconstitutional Muslim ban, American Muslims have been coming forward to share their stories of how the ban has cruelly separated their families, affected their work, studies and worship, and singled them out for discrimination solely because of their faith. Georgetown University's Bridge Initiative , which combines research into Islamophobia with methods for addressing prejudice against Islam, recently launched a campaign on its Instagram feed highlighting how young Muslims in America experience the ban's anti-Muslim message. (Last year, Bridge Initiative research fellow Kristin Garrity Sekerci joined AU for a discussion on "Standing With Our Muslim Neighbors.") Americans United represents several people who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents with heartbreaking stories of forced separation from family members because of Trump's Muslim ban. The people whom we represent are plaintiffs in Iranian Alliances Across Borders v. Trump , the lawsuit challenging Muslim Ban 3.0 that we filed with our allies, Muslim Advocates and the law firm Covington & Burling, in consultation with the National Iranian American Council. The plaintiffs include an elderly Maryland woman in poor health - she's 79 and relies on a wheelchair. She is counting on her Iranian adult son to come to the United States to help her and her 90-year-old husband. Even though her son's visa was approved more than seven years ago

BY: Charles Fain Lehman Follow @CharlesFLehman May 5, 2018 5:00 am Apprehensions and attempted entry by inadmissible persons at America's southwestern border rose slightly in April of 2018, but was more than three times higher than the same month in 2017, new data from the Customs and Border Protection Agency show. More than 50,000 individuals tried to cross the southwestern border in April, the second month in a row that that many people have attempted the crossing. Some 12,000 individuals attempted to cross but were found inadmissible, bringing the FY 2018 total to 63,000. And 38,000 were apprehended attempting to cross between ports of entry, bringing the FY 2018 total to more than 200,000. Among the group apprehended, there were some 4,000 unaccompanied minors, and just under 10,000 family units. Both unaccompanied minors and family units are, as a matter of policy, only detained briefly before being released into the interior pending further deportation proceedings. Estimates from the Center for Immigration Studies indicate that only half of all of those individuals released pending further hearings actually show up for their subsequent trial. The major increase in April of 2018 as compared to the previous April--when just 15,000 people were apprehended--signals the end of a historic drop in cross-border movement following the election of President Donald Trump. The so-called Trump effect saw immigration levels hitting five year lows in the months following Trump's swear

Marco Rubio's life story is composed of the kind of dreamlike images which are filled with the twists, turns, and ultimate success that is so emblematic of what we consider when someone talks about "the American Dream." But is that story diminished when the basic facts of it turn out to be nothing more than fiction, a tale told by a politician with a burning desire to appeal to a specific demographic group? Here's the story as Rubio tells it on the stump and at debates: He calls himself a "son of exiles," and the goes on to remark that his parents left Cuba so they could escape the harsh realities of life in the island nation after Fidel Castro came to power. Castro, Rubio also likes to say when he recalls the story of his parents leaving Cuba, is a "thug." But the Washington Post begs to differ. After doing extensive research which included looking at naturalization papers and other official records, the Post says that in fact the Rubios left Cuba fully two-and-a-half years before Castro ever came to power. Now there is little doubt that Rubio's parents had good reasons for immigrating, if only because they wanted a better life for themselves and their children. There is nothing wrong with wanting the best for yourself and your children. But if those are the facts, then why manufacture a counter-narrative that is not supported by the truth? And all of this speaks to a much larger question about the Florida Senator: Is he, as he accuses others of doing, merely saying what is

This is, of course, the kind of conviction-less compromising that makes people distrust politicians. For those of us who can - at least from time to time - remove ourselves from the frustration of it, it can also bring a great deal of humor to watch our leaders pretend to be stalwarts of principle as they bend and contort themselves like a pretzel in order to play the game. Does Chuck Schumer believe that states should be allowed to decide that abortion does not work best in their state? Does Chuck Schumer believe that states should be allowed to decide that gay marriage does not work best in their state? Does Chuck Schumer believe that states should be allowed to decide that Obamacare does not work for their state? Does Chuck Schumer believe that states should be allowed to decide that flying the Confederate flag works in their state? Does Chuck Schumer believe that states should be allowed to decide that affirmative action does not work in their state? Peter Heck's bias is not just showing, it is overwhelming the article. He quotes Cruz's comments about Trump's character and then his comments about Trump's effectiveness as president, and postures that the second is a denial of the first. I don't think any of us are blind to Trump's amoral, if not immoral, history, no matter how stridently the Trump haters insist that we are. It is what it is. Cruz merely stated what so many of us believe----that in spite of that history, Trump's style is the kind of "flash-bang grenade" the

A report published recently in Environmental Research Letters described a long-term risk to many of the world's landmarks if global warming continues. The study looked 2,000 years into the future, but the authors argued that global warming could produce noticeable effects this year. Natural treasures like the Florida Everglades could also be in danger around the world. The same rise in sea level that makes it possible to paddle a boat up the Statue of Liberty would drown natural landmarks around the world. In the nearer term, rising sea levels could combine with storm surges to do more damage. A temperature increase of 3 degrees Celsius could put 20 percent of the world's landmarks under water. The base of the Statue of Liberty would be reachable by boat. The French Quarter in New Orleans, the Sydney Opera House and the Tower of London would be in danger, along with the entire city of Venice, Italy. The same temperature change could raise sea levels enough to submerge land now home to 7 percent of the world's population. While the effects predicted in the study might not reach their worst for centuries, the report did not account for storm surges. Any increase in sea level would logically make storm surges worse. In addition, the report's estimates for temperature increase and sea level rise are on the "conservative side" according to a summary presented on Science Daily . The research, by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, focused on UNESCO World Heritage sit

WASHINGTON--Thousands of evangelical leaders are asking President Donald Trump to reconsider his executive order pausing the United States refugee program and barring travel from seven Muslim-majority countries. Christian humanitarian group World Relief published a letter in The Washington Post on Wednesday with signatures from 100 prominent evangelical leaders asking Trump to reassess his decision. Signatories included popular Christian authors Tim Keller, Max Lucado, and Ann Voskamp, as well as church leaders such as Bill Hybels, Eric Costanzo, and Eugene Cho. World Relief opened the letter to other pastors and church staff and this morning delivered it to the White House with more than 3,000 signatures from congregations in all 50 states. "As Christians, we have a historic call expressed over 2,000 years, to serve the suffering," the letter states. "We cannot abandon this call now. We live in a dangerous world and affirm the crucial role of government in protecting us from harm and in setting the terms on refugee admissions. However, compassion and security can coexist." Trump's order temporarily stopped all refugees from entering the country for 120 days, barred immigration from Syria indefinitely, and blocked all visitors from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen for the next three months. Trump has called the order necessary to ensure the safety of Americans. The order currently is on hold while it awaits legal review at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, an

"Non-Violence" a k a "The Knotted Gun" by Carl Fredrik Reutersward, given to the United Nations by the government of Luxembourg in 1988 I n the wake of Friday's gruesome tragedy, in which a presumably mentally ill shooter killed 26 Americans in an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut--including 20 children between the ages of six and seven--it has never been more evident that our nation's gun laws are in desperate need of reform.Thanks to years of relentless propaganda by the National Rifle Association (NRA) the American people no longer care much for the phrase "gun control," but they do support specific policy proposals in overwhelming numbers. For example, swing-state exit-polling data from the 2012 election indicates that 90 percent of gun owners support requiring background checks on all gun sales, including private sales. Republican pollster Frank Luntz has conducted additional surveys showing broad support for common-sense gun laws even among NRA members. This does not mean that the road to better gun policy is going to be easy, but it does suggest that progress can be made, particularly after President Obama's inspiring remarks last night, in which he promised to use the full power of his office to ensure that mass shootings like Newtown do not occur again. There is no doubt we need broad changes to our nation's gun laws. Here are three ways to start reforming our policy. First, every purchaser of a firearm should be subject to a background check through the FBI

Lord knows the troubled actor needs one, and in one of the least-covered pre-Oscar stories you'll see in the runup to the Sunday night movie awards, Rourke tells Our Sunday Visitor about the New York priest who helped turn him around in 1994. Rourke is up for a Best Actor for his role as Randy "Ram" Robinson, the over-the-hill wrestler in "The Wrestler," and if he wins it'll be a tale of redemption twice over. The OSV piece is available to subscribers only (so subscribe-it's a good cause, too!) but in essence it recounts how the bad boy 80's star (and yes, I saw "Diner" when it came out-loved it-and how about that cast?) was at rock bottom and about to sink lower. His wife at the time was hooked on heroin and then was raped, and when Rourke learned who the rapist was, he headed out with a gun kill the man and then himself. As the OSV story tells it: Yet, instead of going through with it, Rourke felt compelled to enter the Church of the Holy Cross near Times Square. There, racked with sorrow and doubt, he started to cry, and the parish pastor, Father Peter Colapietro, took notice. "I reached a place in my life where living was living hard. I was at a crossroads. Because I was raised Catholic, I had issues with the dark side of life I was drifting in," Rourke said. "I didn't know this man, Father Peter. I just walked in his church one day, walked in the right door and met the right priest." Father Colapietro managed to talk Rourke out of his plan. "He took away my gun and had m

I've monitored Religious Right groups for more than three decades, and I have to say, I've seen nothing like what's unfolding these days. . Over the years, I've attended meetings of the Christian Coalition and the Family Research Council's annual "Values Voter Summit." I once sat through a "Reclaiming America for Christ" conference held by the late TV preacher D. James Kennedy in Florida, and I've been to gatherings sponsored by smaller or regional Religious Right groups. Without exception, at every one of these meetings, I've heard the same message over and over again: character counts. America's political leaders, speakers at these meetings would thunder, must model moral behavior. They set the standard, so don't follow a leader who comes up short when it comes to "morals" and "values." Apparently, that's all been tossed out the window. On Sunday night, an adult-entertainment film star named Stormy Daniels was interviewed by Anderson Cooper on "60 Minutes" to discuss her alleged affair with President Donald Trump. She provided salacious details of her time with Trump in 2006 and asserted that she was later threatened and told not to talk about it. Leaders of the Religious Right have responded to this by making it clear they're sticking with Trump. Daniels isn't the only one speaking out. Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, has asserted that she too had an affair with Trump in 2006. Summer Zervos, a former contestant on Trump's reality show TV "The Apprentice," is suin

By Evan Lips | February 16, 2016, 13:16 EDT Printed from: http://newbostonpost.com/2016/02/16/warren-lights-up-mcconnell-gop-over-replacing-scalia/ (Courtesy - Associated Press) WASHINGTON - Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren lit up her social media accounts over the holiday weekend, adding to the powderkeg of partisanship that has defined the aftermath of conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's sudden death in Texas on Saturday. The state's senior senator was apparently reacting to statements by Kentucky's Mitch McConnell, the Senate's Republican leader, who on Saturday declared about replacing Scalia on the high court: "This vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president." McConnell cited the need to give Americans "a voice in the selection." Warren picked up on that and on statements from many other GOP senators concerning the timing of filling the pivotal ninth seat on the nation's top court. The Cambridge Democrat's twin personal and Senate Twitter feeds have historically been defined by periods of silence interrupted by successions of rapid-fire messages, delivered especially during times featuring partisan battles. Her succession of tweets on Sunday furthered that pattern: The sudden death of Justice Scalia creates an immediate vacancy on the most important court in the United States. -- Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) Feb. 14, 2016 . @SenateMajLdr is right that Americans should have a voice in selecting the next SCOTUS justice. In fact, they did

US President Donald Trump says he would probably station a few thousand National Guard troops at the 3,200-kilometre-long Mexican border until the wall he wants to build there is done. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto delivers a message on the decision of US President Donald Trump to send National Guard troops to the border, at Los Pinos presidential residence in Mexico City, in this handout photograph released to Reuters by the Mexico Presidency on April 5, 2018. ( Reuters ) Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Thursday sharply rebuked Donald Trump over his plan to send National Guard troops to the border, joining with opponents to tell the US leader not to vent his domestic political "frustration" on Mexico. Trump has been unable to get the US Congress or Mexico to fully fund his planned border wall, and Trump said Thursday he will probably keep National Guard troops along the Mexican border until it is built. In an unusually combative address, a stern-looking Pena Nieto urged Trump to stop sowing discord between the two nations and demanded a more respectful tone in bilateral relations. "If your recent declarations are due to frustration over issues to do with internal policy, your laws, or your Congress, direct yourself to them, not to Mexicans," Pena Nieto said. For months Mexico has been locked in tortuous negotiations with the United States and Canada to rework the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), but hopes have risen recently that some kind of preli

The U.S. House of Representatives chamber / Getty Images BY: Charles Fain Lehman Follow @CharlesFLehman October 4, 2017 10:05 am The House of Representatives voted 237 to 189 to pass a ban on abortion after 20 weeks on Tuesday. H.R. 36 , officially the "Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act," was reintroduced by Rep. Trent Franks (R., Ariz.) in January; House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) announced last week that the bill would be brought to the floor. The act would make it a crime to perform an abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Violators would be subject to a fine, up to five years in prison, or both. It would make exceptions for the life of the mother, and for pregnancies that are the result of rape or incest. The act also specifically targets abortion providers; women who undergo an abortion after 20 weeks will not be prosecuted for violating the act's terms. Similar bills failed in 2013 and 2015 , but this time the bill has support from the White House. "The Administration strongly supports H.R. 36,... and applauds the House of Representatives for continuing its efforts to secure critical pro-life protections," a statement of administration policy reads. "The bill, if enacted into law, would help to facilitate the culture of life to which our Nation aspires. ... If H.R. 36 were presented to the President in its current form, his advisors would recommend that he sign the bill into law." A 20-week ban would bring the United States in line with the rest

Among the many progressive movements to gain attention in recent years, the Fight for $15 is among the few that can say it's winning. An organizing drive that began with fast food workers and spread across low-wage sectors, the movement has helped achieve minimum wage hikes in places as disparate as Los Angeles, Chicago and Arkansas. Yet its most significant victory came last summer, when New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo initiated a wage board investigation that raised the base pay for all of the state's fast food workers to $15 an hour. Taking his support one giant step further, Gov. Cuomo has vowed to push through an April budget measure that would make New York the first state to pass a $15 per hour minimum wage for all of its workers. But the measure, which may include significant cuts to public higher education, poses a dilemma for the Fight for $15 coalition. By embracing Cuomo, the movement risks strengthening the staying power of a governor who has shown, time and again, his willingness to hurt the working people of New York as much as help them. On the other hand, victory -- that ostensible goal of any and all political movements -- is in sight. Thus the Fight for $15's relationship with Cuomo exemplifies the choice between purity and pragmatism that faces any movement on the brink of legislative success. What happens in this case will set a crucial precedent for progressive movements across the country as they seek to etch their platforms into law. Strange bedfellows form

Facing a rising tide of outrage from across the political spectrum over the forced separation of migrant children and parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, US President Donald Trump dug in Monday, again falsely blaming Democrats in the escalating political crisis. Clearly, the White House seems to have directed all its talking heads to slam Democrats but the fact is that the US' immigration laws have been in place for a long time. What has changed is that the Donald Trump administration decided on a "zero tolerance policy" about a month ago. Colleen Kraft, chief of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told news networks that the status quo "amounts to child abuse". Children are being used by some of the worst criminals on earth as a means to enter our country. Has anyone been looking at the Crime taking place south of the border. It is historic, with some countries the most dangerous places in the world. Not going to happen in the U.S. -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2018 A rising wave of immigration problems is lashing America at a time of significant demographic shift from a mostly white to a rainbow nation marked by significant levels of foreigners making US their home since the 1960s. Things have come to a head, US Congress is likely to vote on a landmark immigration reform bill this week. Amidst fresh backlash from almost every flank, Trump plans to talk immigration with his own party on Tuesday. Representative image. Reuters Democrats have turned up the press

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson before a campaign event at Colorado Christian University on Oct. 29, 2015, in Lakewood, Colo. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Before entering the political arena, Ben Carson was best-known among African Americans as "that brilliant black doctor who separated conjoined twins." His rise from poverty was inspirational and a source of pride. For many, that pride began to change when Carson slammed President Barack Obama and started championing conservative viewpoints. In an interview , NewsOne Now host Roland Martin asked the retired pediatric neurosurgeon why African Americans, who are predominantly Democrat, should cross party lines to vote for him. "If they will actually listen to what I'm saying and not what people are saying what I'm saying," Carson said. "Go back and look at my life. Look at what I do." In The Root' s Meet the Candidates series, which examines where the leading presidential candidates stand on some of the issues that matter most to black people, we've already taken a look at Bernie Sanders , Donald Trump , Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio . We continue now with a look at Carson. Raising Incomes With the economy rebounding, black people don't want to be left behind. Early in his campaign, Carson met with community leaders last year in Baltimore, shortly after the riots, and told them that fixing the economy is the main solution to crime and poverty in black neighborhoods. Reducing taxes and regulations would lead to

A group of students at Iowa State University is advising its white peers to "head to the doctor" in order to be treated for their white privilege. "It is becoming increasingly clear that there is a sickness spreading at Iowa State. So the next time you use your mandatory health insurance and head to the doctor, tell him or her if you are experiencing these little-known symptoms," a group known as Latinos United for a Change wrote in a letter to the editor : "While there is currently no way to cure white privilege, there are definitely ways to deal with the symptoms." * "You can get your hair cut wherever you want." * "You can walk into the supermarket and find your favorite foods." * "You can see yourself positively portrayed in the media." * "You can speak your native tongue without getting looks or comments from other people." "If you have symptoms like those described above, you may want to be checked for white privilege," the group writes. "White privilege is like a virus. Carriers are often unaware of their infection for decades while spreading their disease to everyone they come in contact with," they added. The purpose of the letter was to respond to "the institutionalized white supremacy" at their school. Apparently, two op-eds published in the school's paper convinced the students of the patriarchal nature of their institution--one made a case against political correctness and the other explained why race-based scholarships may be inherently unfair . "Both of thes

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin attacked Fox News and others on Monday's @ This Hour on CNN for placing " an unfair burden on Islam ," particularly in the wake of Islamist terrorist attacks. Shihab-Eldin asserted that those calling on Muslims to condemn terrorism are "not aware of Google; or not paying attention; or perhaps, watching too much Fox News, where hosts constantly are ... driving this point home - this us versus them ...this point home that Muslims aren't speaking out....I think it's regrettable, and I think, arguably, bigoted ." [ video below ] Host Michaela Pereira introduced the segment with the former Huffington Post journalist by noting the "nearly four million people crowded into the streets across France yesterday" in response to the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, and "forty leaders from around the world [who] also marched along with them." She continued by pointing out that "some moderate Muslims are speaking out - denouncing violence committed in the name of Islam. But many are asking: should they do more, and what can they do?" Pereira then turned to Shihab-Eldin and asked, "I think, right off the bat, that crucial question we've been hearing from, sort of, different corners - that moderate Muslims need to be part of this conversation - that [they] have a responsibility - need to be doing more. What are your thoughts on that?" The "Emmy-nominated journalist," as the CNN anchor referred to him, replied with his slam of Fox: AHMED SHIHAB-ELDIN, EMMY-NOMINATED JOURNA

Michael Bloomberg, John Morse, Angela Giron / Wikimedia Commons BY: CJ Ciaramella Follow @cjciaramella September 11, 2013 2:15 pm Colorado voters ousted two of their Democratic state senators Tuesday night in a stinging loss for the gun-control advocates who poured more than $2 million into the state's first-ever recall election, such as New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Voters recalled Colorado Democrats Senate President John Morse and Sen. Angela Giron for their role in passing a package of new gun laws earlier this year. The recall effort, started by outraged local Second Amendment supporters, quickly became a national duel between the National Rifle Association and conservative groups on one side and an alliance of unions, Democratic organizations, and gun-control groups on the other. However, the infusion of money from deep-pocketed donors like Bloomberg may have been as much of a liability as a boon to the embattled state senators, as it gave their opponents a clear line of attack. "The people of Colorado Springs and Pueblo sent a clear message to their elected officials that their primary job is to defend our rights and freedoms and that they are accountable to their constituents--not the dollars or social engineering agendas of anti-gun billionaires," the NRA's political victory fund said in a statement. NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam was more concise. "One thing is clear from the Morse defeat: Mike Bloomberg is political poison," he said in a statement to the Huf

Defense Secretary James Mattis was unaware of controversial statements made by Mark Green, President Donald Trump's choice for Army secretary, when he vouched for his nomination last month, The Washington Examiner reported Friday. Green withdrew his name on Friday from consideration for the position. Citing two anonymous Pentagon officials, Mattis did not know about the public statements Green, a former Army special operations flight surgeon, made opposing gay marriage, transgender bathroom rights and teaching Islam to public school students. Green is currently a Tennessee state senator and runs an emergency room staffing company. "The White House did the vetting," said one official, who explained Mattis originally supported Green because of his military record. Soon after Green's name came up for consideration for the Army secretary position, groups that support transgender rights called a news conference to share a video where he called transgenderism a disease. The Palm Center, one of the groups opposing his nomination, called Green a "stealth extremist." Democrats and a total of 41 civil rights groups ultimately opposed Green's nomination, The Hill reported Friday. Videos were freely available on social media showing controversial statements Green made, but when the Pentagon official was asked if Mattis was aware of them, he said "apparently not," the Washington Examiner reported. Green was among the officers who attended to Saddam Hussein on the night he was captured, an

President Trump has made 1,950 false or misleading claims in 347 days, or an average of 5.6 claims a day, according to The Washington Post . The Post found that Trump repeated more than 60 claims three or more times. Trump made 24 false or misleading claims during his impromptu 30-minute interview with the New York Times over the holidays. Trump told Americans 53 times that his tax cut was the biggest. It was actually ranked as the eighth biggest, according to Treasury Department data. The Post adds: And 58 times Trump has claimed that the United States pays the highest corporate taxes (25 times) or that it is one of the highest-taxed nations (33 times). The latter is false; the former is misleading, as the effective U.S. corporate tax rate (what companies end up paying after deductions and benefits) ends up being lower than the statutory tax rate. An astonishing 85 times, Trump has celebrated a rise in the stock market -- even though in the campaign he repeatedly said it was a "bubble" that was ready to crash as soon as the Federal Reserve started raising interest rates. Well, the Fed has raised rates three times since the election -- and yet the stock market has not plunged as Trump predicted. It has continued a rise in stock prices that began under President Barack Obama in 2009. Again, Trump has never explained his shift in position on the stock market.

You've probably heard by now about Indiana's horrible new anti-gay law. That would be the one signed by Republican Gov. Mike Pence, allowing religious people to exempt themselves from any generally applicable law they feel like and permitting businesses to discriminate against gays. No shoes, no shirt, no heterosexuality, no service. Celebrities and all right-thinking people are boycotting the new "hate state" over its discriminatory return to the dark ages. There's just one problem: the law doesn't say any of these things. Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act doesn't give blanket permission to businesses to deny service to gays or anyone else. (If a business truly wants to avoid serving sinners, it will have zero customers.) It doesn't mention sexual orientation at all. What it does say is that government entities in the state "may substantially burden a person's exercise of religion" only "in the furtherance of a compelling government interest" and using "the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling government interest." Frankly, that should be the requirement for all government action, even when religion isn't involved. If a person feels their free exercise rights have been or are likely to be substantially burdened, they can make a legal claim or assert this as a legal defense. Whether that person's legal argument would prevail or not is ultimately up to a judge. That's it. The federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act has been on the books since 1993

It would be unconstitutional for Congress to prevent President Trump from firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is probing Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election. I'm not saying that firing Mueller would be a wise move politically, nor am I urging the president to do so. That's another issue. But under the Constitution, it is beyond the power of Congress to limit or impose conditions on any president's authority to remove a political appointee within the Justice Department or any other department in the executive branch. Whether you think Donald Trump is an absolutely wonderful president or an absolutely awful one, this holds true, as it does for all other presidents, regardless of political party. Senators Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Chris Coons, D-Del., are nevertheless pressing ahead to seek passage of legislation they are sponsoring called the Special Counsel Integrity Act . Under this bill, only the attorney general could discipline or remove a special counsel. If the attorney general has been recused from the case (as Attorney General Jeff Sessions is with the Russia probe), then the "most senior Department of Justice official who has been confirmed by the Senate" could exercise this authority under the bill. The bill further provides that a special counsel can be removed only for "misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity, conflict of interest, or other good cause." The special counsel has to be notified in writing of the "specific reason" for hi

Photo Credit: Andrew F. Kazmierski / Shutterstock.com On the February 27 edition of Hannity, host Sean Hannity replayed part of his February 26 interview with Rep. Keith Ellison. During the exchange, Ellison responded to Hannity's question about the federal debt being "immoral" by saying, "You are immoral for telling lies." Hannity asked, "I'm immoral? What did I do that's immoral?" Ellison responded, "You tell mistruths. You say things that aren't true." Speaking before the clip was aired, Hannity said Ellison "at times, seemed incoherent" and "really started grasping at straws." After the clip was aired, Hannity said to guest J.C. Watts, "I just gave him the rope and said, go. Here you go, rant away." 10. Hannity Hyped RNC's Doctored Audio Of Supreme Court Arguments. Hannity uncritically aired a Republican National Committee (RNC) ad that used audio from Supreme Court oral arguments to attack health care reform -- but the audio used in the ad was dishonestly edited. [Media Matters, 3/30/12 ] 9. Hannity Distorted CBO Data To Attack Obama. Hannity claimed that a January 2012 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report showed that if Obama were to win a second term, taxes would "go up 30 percent." In fact, the report only stated that taxes would increase at such a rate if all the Bush tax cuts were allowed to expire. [Media Matters, 2/2/12 ] 8. Hannity Falsely Claimed A White House Adviser "Advocated Compulsory Abortion." Hannity claimed that White House science and technology

Amid the controversy over Russia's anti-gay law earlier this year, it was widely reported that at least eight US states have laws on the books that are similar, though perhaps less far-reaching. Now, Lambda Legal has launched a campaign targeting those laws, which the LGBT civil rights group says violate the guarantee of equal protection in the US Constitution. The laws, often referred to as "no promo homo" laws, restrict or prohibit the discussion of LGBT issues in the classroom, according to Lambda Legal's #DontEraseUs campaign: These laws are harmful and stigmatizing to LGBT students. For example, Alabama and Texas specifically mandate that, in curriculum related to sexual health education, students must be taught that being gay "is not a lifestyle acceptable to the general public." Meanwhile, Arizona prohibits instruction that "portrays homosexuality as a positive alternative life-style" in certain curriculum. Other states with anti-LGBT curriculum laws include Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah. Lambda Legal says many of the "no promo homo" laws were passed in the late 1980s and early 1990s as part of legislation related to sexual health education and HIV/AIDS. However, while they may apply only to health education, they are often misinterpreted by teachers and administrators -- and could even be used to prohibit instruction about Harvey Milk in a history class or Walt Whitman in a poetry class. What's more, the laws actually are likely to i

[Matthew 24:15, 21] When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) [21} For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. The National Cathedral, Washington, DC From: JoeClarke.Net ^ | 01/09/2013 | JoeClarke.Net Posted on Wed Jan 09 2013 20:06:43 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time) by joeclarke Sirs, You have turned the National Cathedral into a national disgrace. I am glad that most people, now, do not associate the National Cathedral with Christianity, just as most Episcopalians are also anathema to the faith. Someone at NC has said that "Gays are children of God." But what God? The Bible says that all humans are God's "offspring" via Adam, but that unless you are born again into the family of God, you are not a child of God as bought by His Only Begotten Son Jesus's shed blood. Your mockery of the things of God will surely end similar to what has happened through the centuries to those who misappropriate the Word of God. Please, reread the countless times that Jerusalem/Israel was sacked and destroyed because of idolatry. Please, read how the Eastern Roman Empire also was destroyed and replaced with Islam. There are countless other examples. In Corinthians we read that fornicators will not inherit the Kingdom of God, but you insist that they will. You remind me of another scripture: "You travel o

Fresh pro-abortion talking points for a new year! Who said feminism was out of ideas? This time around, feminist writer and moral pygmy Amanda Marcotte is asserting that pregnancy is a disease, with abortion as the cure. In a recent piece for RH Reality Check entitled, "Nicki Minaj and the Inevitable Politicization of Celebrity Abortions," Marcotte argued that women regret pregnancy - not abortion. Referencing singer Nicki Minaj , she urged that pregnancy is like "when you break your leg" and abortion is the "cast." When the media reported on Minaj's abortion as a teenager, they "perpetuate[d] abortion stigma," Marcotte wrote. The media, Marcotte continued, "suggest[ed] that she did something shameful and terrible." Like, OMG! What about the fun of abortion? Snuffing out innocent lives is cause for a party! The fault, according to Marcotte lay in the "politicization of abortion." Women, she admitted, "feel pangs of regret" when recalling their abortions - but "not because ... they think they should have had the baby." Instead, what women regret is "a situation that required an abortion." To prove her point, Marcotte compared pregnancy to breaking a bone: It's like when you break your leg and you ruefully look at the cast later. You're regretting that you made the mistake that led to a broken leg, but you're not mad that medical science was on hand to fix the problem. "The anti-choice movement has successfully pushed the idea that women are - or should be - torn up with

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, center, met with East Harlem residents to talk up his gun plan (Photo: Will Bredderman for Observer). Meeting with East Harlem gun control activists, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley--a dark horse candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination--debuted an aggressive plan to regulate firearms and invited voters to "draw their own conclusions" about rival Sen. Bernie Sanders' history on the issue. Mr. O'Malley started the press conference at the Boys & Girls Harbor Education Center by highlighting his own record of passing "comprehensive gun safety legislation" in his home state and rolling out his proposals for new federal rules that he claimed could cut the number of shooting deaths in half by 2025. His national package included universal background checks and fingerprint licensing for all firearms regardless of where they are purchased, a federal gun registry, tough new penalties for violators--and the repeal of the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which prevented people from suing gun makers or sellers when their weapons were used criminally. The candidate ripped the law, which a Republican Congress passed and which Mr. Sanders--a self-identified independent socialist who caucuses with the Democrats--supported. Mr. O'Malley argued that it was a sell-out to the companies that make guns and lobbying groups like the National Rifle Association, which advocate against regulation. "It wasn't until 2005 that Congress s

"If you aren't with us, you're with the terrorists." Our dear friend former U.S. President Bush was fond of a particularly Manichean world view, leaving little room for the vast swatches of grey area that define the moral universe for most humans over the age of six. But we can't blame W. for his penchant for reducing complex subject matter to a debate over good and evil. There simply isn't time for anything else. When it comes to popular media, brevity indeed rules, though wit is the exception rather than the norm. The average local news segment is just 41 seconds long. Most broadcast news stories clock in at just over 2 minutes and 20 seconds. And the most popular Youtube videos? Most are two minutes long. Videos of cats doing either something adorable or grumpy are usually considerably shorter than two minutes. Two minutes is an ideal time period for sensational footage of gas victims writhing, or a capsized cruise ship taking on water. Two minutes is just right for images of F-16s accompanied by 30 seconds of exposition on the accuracy of their munitions. Unfortunately for the viewers of said 120-second segments, two minutes of video can't hope to provide analysis any deeper than a puddle. Saddam is evil. We must invade. Drugs are bad. Make them illegal! Two minutes is an exceptionally inadequate amount of time, for example, for a layered discussion of a civil war involving regional power players and the role of international law and diplomacy in reducing violence. So it'

On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, responding to a question posed by a Rabbi, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas asserted , "what happened to the Jews in the Holocaust is the most heinous crime to have occurred against humanity in the modern era." The statement could be construed as an olive branch to his Israeli counterparts in light of recent diplomatic friction. However, Abbas' views of the Holocaust are far from consistent. Abbas received his Ph.D. in history in 1982 from the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. His dissertation , titled "The Connection between the Nazis and the Leaders of the Zionist Movement 1933-1945," was published as a book in Amman in 1984, titled "The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism." The scholarship was controversial, to put it mildly. As historian Benny Morris noted, Abbas believed that the "The Zionist movement led a broad campaign of incitement against the Jews living under Nazi rule, in order to arouse the government's hatred of them, to fuel vengeance against them, and to expand the mass extermination." Additionally, as Holocaust scholar Rafael Medoff notes, Abbas wrote that, "Following the war, word was spread that six million Jews were amongst the victims and that a war of extermination was aimed primarily at the Jews...The truth is that no one can either confirm or deny this figure. In other words, it is possible that the number of Jewish victims reache

Man there is so much stupid in this I hardly know where to begin. "LIABILITY. As soon as an employer allows its employees to be armed with deadly weapons, it assumes responsibility for any negligence on the part of the employee with regard to that weapon." Wrong, business all over the country have no policy against carrying firearms and I am not aware of a business ever being blamed or being held responsible for a legal use of a firearm by one of their employee's. Also, most schools "weapons" policies are written for students not employee's since it is against the law to carry on school grounds they don't need a policy. (May school has no policy for carrying at work.) "Even school bus drivers are required to hold a commercial driver's license and undergo in-house training in many school systems, just to drive a school bus." Please point out where the right to drive a bus is given? Or the right to have a commercial drivers license? Also I see it has escaped you that Schools would not have to have a policy "allowing" anyone to carry a gun, since it would be covered in law, they just wouldn't have to call the police if someone happened to see someone's gun. "LEOs are universally required to undergo extensive training in the handling and use of their weapons." ......ROFLMAO!!!!!!.........ROFLMAO!!!!!..........Oh, that's a good one. Most cops train during their academy training and the past of proficiency test that is far lower that even basic military standards. " "They are requi

You are not signed in as a Premium user; we rely on Premium users to support our news reporting. Sign in or Sign up today! By Jay Boyd, Ph.D. The Center for Medical Progress' (CMP) video evidence of Planned Parenthood's atrocious and gruesome practice of selling baby parts, as well as the actual harvesting of organs from aborted but born alive infants, has moved the hearts and souls of many pro-lifers, and hopefully has made more than a few pro-abortion people change their minds on the morality of abortion. There is no denying the level of horror and disgust that these videos engender in those who have a conscience. It may be hoped, though, that recognition of the absolute disregard for the sanctity and dignity of life shown by Planned Parenthood leads us also to recognize the disregard shown to those who are diagnosed as "brain dead," and whose organs are then harvested. This, too, is a practice that prematurely takes the life of an individual by cutting open his body to remove vital organs. And, just as with preborn babies, these individuals are unable to speak for themselves. (Thankfully, some of them do have advocates who refuse to allow the harvesting of organs when the person is "brain dead but not truly dead.) It is likely that most Catholics consider the question of the morality of organ donation to be a settled matter, and to view it as a noble and generous gesture on the part of donors. After all, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) tells us: Organ transplant

President Trump is proposing giving 1.8 million young undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship in exchange for $25 billion for his long-promised wall and the end of the lottery and chain migration as well as other border security. He's coming up with more than Bush or Obama would have ever considered but unfortunately the damage might be irreversible According to a group called the Migration Policy Institute, there may actually be as many as 3.6-million illegals who were brought to the United States when they were minors. Some Democrats are demanding legal status not only for the DACA beneficiaries, but for all 3.6-million immigrants who came to the USA with their parents. Each of them could bring in many via chain migration. One terrorist immigrant recently brought in 23. That must go. Then there are the alleged 11 million others who are at least 23 million. Our future rests with foreigners, some of whom are not wonderful as Democrats would have you believe. Daily Caller secured a memo two weeks ago by Soros's Center for American Progress which emphasized the importance of passing DACA legislation. As the memo phrased it, it's a "critical component of the Democratic Party's future electoral success." DREAMer legislation will turn 4, possibly 5 red states Democrat Progressive without any other amnesty. This is how DACA destroys any chance of Republicans winning another presidential election: According to USCIS -- with the 800,000 original number -- there are sig

By Printus LeBlanc Another day, another hearing and the America public learn more about the mountain of evidence pointing towards the entire Mueller special counsel team being filled with conflicts of interest. Rod Rosenstein said he would not fire Robert Mueller stating, "If there were good cause, I would act." Well Mr. Deputy Attorney General, not counting the tens of thousands of dollars in political donations to Hillary Clinton, there is plenty of evidence to suggest a biased Special Counsel, if you would only open your eyes. The Department of Justice supposedly has strict rules regarding conflicts of interests. The DOJ regulation regarding personal conflicts of interest states , "In addition to the impartiality regulation, 28 C.F.R. SS 45.2 prohibits a DOJ employee, without written authorization, from participating in a criminal investigation or prosecution if he has a personal or political relationship with any person or organization substantially involved in the conduct that is the subject of the investigation or prosecution , or any person or organization which he knows has a specific and substantial interest that would be directly affected by the outcome of the investigation or prosecution." Why does it seem like Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has never seen this regulation? Peter Strzok is a top FBI counterintelligence agent that was one of the lead agents on the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation, or matter if your Loretta Lynch. Strzok was also one o

If you were hoping to do business with the state of Alabama today, you're out of luck. Monday, April 23 is Confederate Memorial Day in Alabama, meaning state offices are closed. Look inside the new lynching museum, opening Thursday in Montgomery The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, opening Thursday, is a project of the nonprofit Equal Justice Initiative, a legal advocacy group in Montgomery. The organization says the combined museum and memorial will be the nation's first site to document racial inequality in America from slavery through Jim Crow to the issues of today. "In the American South, we don't talk about slavery. We don't have monuments and memorials that confront the legacy of lynching. We haven't really confronted the difficulties of segregation. And because of that, I think we are still burdened by that history," said EJI executive director Bryan Stevenson.

Human rights skirted at Asia summit as Trump rounds off tour By Manuel Mogato and Steve Holland Reuters November 13. 2017 9:51PM Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (left) reaches for the hands of South Korea President Moon Jae-in (second left) as Philippines' President Rodrigo Duterte (third left), Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (third right), Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah (second right) and Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen join hands during a family photo before the 19th ASEAN Republic of Korea Summit in Manila, Philippines, on Monday. (REUTERS/Aaron Favila/Pool) MANILA -- Leaders of Asian nations meeting in Manila on Monday skirted around the mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims triggered by Myanmar's military crackdown, disappointing human rights groups who were hoping for a tough stand on the humanitarian crisis. There was no pressure either from U.S. President Donald Trump over the Philippines' bloody war on drugs during a meeting on the sidelines of the summit with President Rodrigo Duterte. Trump told reporters that he had a "great relationship" with Philippines leader, who, a year ago, had branded then-President Barack Obama "a son of a bitch" for questioning his ruthless campaign. "They really hit it off," Duterte's Communications Secretary Martin Andanar told reporters after the meeting with Trump. A draft of the statement to be issued after a meeting of Southeast Asian leaders made no mention of the flight of Rohingya from military operations in

In a widely covered interview , Pope Francis asked Catholics to stop speaking out on abortion, contraception, and gay marriage. This signaled a wholesale change in the Church's stance toward the world, an opening of windows to let in the air, a banishment from the religious sphere of any concern that became entangled with the political. Or so said certain people eager to replace one political conception of the papacy with another, to change out a Tea Party pope for a Move On magisterium. "Pope Francis Is a Liberal," declared Slate , "Its not just homosexuality or birth control. Hes profoundly anti-conservative." Others have pointed out that the Church's teaching hasn't changed, that no change in that teaching has been proposed, and that, moreover, when read correctly the pope's words are perfectly of a piece with every utterance of Benedict. Despite the truth of many of their discrete observations, it sometimes seems such interpreters would refuse the pope the right to say something new. The pope certainly does mean to propose an adjustment, though the nature of that adjustment isn't immediately clear. The hope of many (and too-eager suspicion of some) that he was muzzling the Church's moral witness was immediately disappointed. A mere day after the publication of his interview, he denounced abortion in the strongest terms of his papacy, some of the strongest of any papacy: In his strongest public words to date on the subject of abortion, Pope Francis affirmed the sacredness

Conservatives are using the ongoing examination of Hillary Clinton's State Department emails to once again make a series of over-the-top accusations that compare her behavior to former President Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal. This is the latest in a pattern of distortions which aim to elevate the email story to the same level as the worst political scandal in American history. The latest round of faulty Watergate comparisons appears to have been sparked by Washington Post Associate Editor Bob Woodward, who, along with fellow Washington Post journalist Carl Bernstein, famously broke the story of the 1972 Nixon-sanctioned break-in at the Watergate hotel. Appearing on MSNBC's Morning Joe on August 18, Woodward said the controversy over Clinton's emails, and the latest development involving Clinton handing over her private server to investigators, "reminds me of the Nixon tapes" which "Nixon thought were exclusively his." He went on to claim: "Hillary Clinton initially took that position: 'I'm not turning this over, there's gonna be no cooperation.' Now they're cooperating." Woodward is perpetuating a falsehood here. As Clinton said in a March 10 press conference: "After I left office, the State Department asked former secretaries of state for our assistance in providing copies of work-related emails from our personal accounts. I responded right away and provided all my emails that could possibly be work-related, which totaled roughly 55,000 printed pages, even thoug

Jimmy: "It has been fantastic for me all my life. " Good for you...but you are the exception. The reality is that our health care delivery broken, archaic, and needs to overhauled now...we are ranked last in the OECD and 37th by the WHO . I lived in France (ranked #1) where there are NO wait times, for emergency service, diagnostic or consultations...and it cost me about the same as I pay in BC... Instead of constantly bleating that "we're better than the US" we must find out who has the best and adapt it to our particular circumstances. JILL AND JOHN WARD commented 10 hours ago BUT IF YOU ARE A REFUGEE / MUSLIM , YOU GET FIRST DIBS , THE LIONS SHARE AND THE BEST OF WHAT WE HAVE TO OFFER INCLUDING THAT WHICH WE CANADIANS ARE REFUSED - ALL FOR FREE !! THANK YOU MOHAMMED TRUDEAU AND YOUR LIBERAL POLICIES ! THE ONLY THING YOU HAVE ANY INTEREST IN WHERE WE CANADIANS ARE CONCERNED IS OUR MONEY WHICH YOU ARE BLOWING THROUGH FASTER THAN WE CAN MAKE IT SO YOU , YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS AND ALL YOUR SPECIAL PEOPLE CAN LIVE THE GOOD LIFE WHILE WE CONTINUE TO LOSE OUR JOBS , HOMES , PENSIONS , HEALTH CARE , FREEDOMS , SECURITY , RIGHTS , CULTURE , VALUES , IDENTITY AND FINALLY , COUNTRY WHICH YOU CAN'T WAIT TO ANNIHILATE AND TURN INTO A THIRD WORLD ISLAMIC , WAR TORN HELL HOLE !! YOU SHOULD BE HUNG IN PUBLIC - I'D PAY TO WATCH YOU NO GOOD , ROTTEN TO THE CORE , PIECE OF SHIT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "Nicely said" Why couldn't we have contract nurses and contract doctors contract adm

The statement below was released by the Socialist Alliance in Australia on May 14. * * * The Socialist Alliance calls on the Colombian government to immediately release independent media activist Joaquin Perez Becerra, who is now facing charges of "terrorism". Perez Becerra, a refugee from Colombia, is a Swedish citizen. We also call on the Swedish government to do its upmost to defend the rights of one of its citizens. Under Article 33(1) of the Geneva Convention, no refugee shall be returned "in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion". We also call on the Venezuelan government, which complied with Colombia's request to deport Perez Becerra to Colombia, to demand that Colombia respect the rights due to Perez Becerra under international conventions. Perez Becerra, a strong voice in defence of human rights in Colombia, was forced to leave Colombia in 1993 following the murder of his wife and constant death threats against him due to his membership in the Union Patriotica (UP). As a member of this democratic and legally registered party, Perez Becerra was elected city councillor in Corinto, Valle del Cauca. However, a state sponsored campaign of violence and terror against the UP resulted in the assassination of more than 4000 UP members. Seeking refuge in Sweden, Perez Becerra became a citizen in 2000 and renou

Republican Governor Bruce Rauner of Illinois has put forward an idea which used to be quite popular but was later frowned upon in some segments of society. He's suggesting that it may be time to bring back capital punishment for criminals who murder uniformed law enforcement officers in the line of duty. The death penalty would also apply to those committing mass murder, defined here as killing more than one person. These measures are part of his proposed changes to a new gun control bill going through the legislature currently which would also ban bump stocks and trigger cranks. A 72 hour waiting period for firearm purchases would also be imposed. (The Hill) Illinois Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner proposed restating the state's death penalty to apply for mass killers or those who kill law enforcement officers. Rauner unveiled the proposal Monday as part of a larger rewrite on a gun control bill, The Chicago Tribune reports. The provision would create a new category of homicide called "death penalty murder." It would apply to adults who kill police officers or more than one person. During a press conference in Chicago, Rauner said those people "deserve to have their life taken." We can leave the rest of the gun control measures on the shelf for another day and focus more on the capital punishment aspect of the proposal. The death penalty has been banned in Illinois since 2011 when Democratic Governor Patt Quinn did away with it. Rauner isn't suggesting bringing it back in full

The U.S. military is preparing to house immigrants at Fort Bliss and Goodfellow Air Force Base in Texas, U.S. officials said Monday. On Sunday, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the U.S. military was preparing to build temporary camps at two military bases to house immigrants but did not name the facilities. One U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said it was expected that one of the bases would house immigrant families and another immigrant children. The official said a formal decision and announcement was expected later on Monday. Fort Bliss is an Army base in El Paso, Texas while Goodfellow Air Base is located in San Angelo, Texas. In the face of outrage at home and overseas over his crackdown on illegal immigration, Trump was forced last week to abandon his policy of separating children from parents who are apprehended for illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The U.S. military, and Mattis in particular, have stressed that it is simply providing logistical support to the Department of Homeland Security, which deals with immigration issues. Last week the U.S. military said it had been asked by the government to get ready to house up to 20,000 immigrant children. Trump has previously turned to the military to help with his border crackdown. Earlier this year, U.S. National Guard forces were dispatched to border states to help tighten security.

A newly released audio recording, distributed Thursday, appears to be of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, marking the first time the self-proclaimed caliph has been heard from in 11 months. Baghdadi, who is a primary target for the U.S., has not been seen in public since July 2014, when he appeared publicly to preach at a mosque in Mosul after ISIS shocked the world by taking control of the northern Iraqi city. The public absence fueled rumors that the 46-year-old had been killed. The 46-minute audio recording appears to counter that narrative, but it's unclear how recent the undated recording actually is. There are oblique references to current events in the audio, including vague references to fighting in Mosul, which Iraqi and allied forces expelled ISIS from last year, as well as mentions of terror in Europe. "Now the Americans, the Russians and the Europeans are living in terror in their countries, fearing the strikes of the mujahedeen," Baghdadi said. The New York Times ' ISIS expert, Rukmini Callimachi, speculated these references might align with recent attacks on the subway in London, the van attack in Barcelona, and a knife attack in Russia last month. The recording also makes mention of the nuclear threat in North Korea, which is the strongest evidence dating the audio to the latest nuclear tit-for-tat between President Trump and Kim Jong-un. For a proof-of-life recording meant to rally ISIS fighters that have sustained substantial losses, vague references to terr

Mark Johnson booking photo via the Calloway County Jail CALLOWAY COUNTY, KY -- Kentucky State Police troopers have arrested a police officer with the Murray State University Public Safety Department on a charge of first degree sexual abuse. KSP says 39-year-old Mark Johnson has been placed on administrative leave from the university, in keeping with the school's policy. Johnson has been working at Murray State since 2004. The charge he faces is a class D felony. Investigators say Johnson is accused of sexually abusing a 24-year-old woman. State police received a complaint about the incident on Wednesday. Johnson was arrested without incident, KSP says, and jailed in the Calloway County Jail. According to the Calloway County Jail inmate roster, Johnson was booked into the jail at 12:14 p.m. Thursday. Local 6 reached out to Murray State about the arrest, and the university responded with the following official statement: "The individual under investigation has been placed on administrative leave. As this is a personnel matter, the university has no further comment. Any additional inquiries should be directed to the Kentucky State Police, which is conducting the investigation." Kentucky State Police say the attack did not happen on Murray State Campus and the victim was not a student. Local 6 has obtain a copy of the complaint warrant which states it happened at Johnson's home.

President Donald Trump's 2018 budget suggests some serious changes to welfare in America. Let's start with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a.k.a. food stamps. His proposal to trim the number of people on food stamps includes requiring able-bodied adults to work or train for work in exchange for benefits. He also wants the states to start taking a larger fiscal role in welfare. Those are common sense suggestions, which naturally have Democrats in an uproar. The president's budget proposals have been labeled a "horror" that will gut America's safety net. That's not what's going to happen, but statists reflexively oppose any program that makes people more self-reliant. After all, how can the government control the masses without them being dependent on it for their every need? Take the first part of Trump's plan: worker activation. This means that people who apply for food stamps will have to work a regular job, prove they are physically incapable of work, or take part in community service or job training. This is not an unreasonable stipulation. When Congress enacted welfare reform back in 1996, establishing a work requirement was one of the single biggest reasons the welfare rolls were dramatically reduced. It wasn't until Barack Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress loosened restrictions for applying for food stamps that welfare numbers started to rise again. In 2013 and 2014, Kansas and Maine were able to reduce the number of able-bodied adults on

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com Pakistan declares no more 'good' and 'bad' Taliban Pakistan ends moratorium on hanging terrorists For the first time, US, Afghanistan and Pakistan will cooperate against Taliban Pakistan declares no more 'good' and 'bad' Taliban Shoes lie in blood in aftermath of Peshawar school massacre (Reuters) After Tuesday's horrific attack on a Peshawar army school in northwest Pakistan, killing over 130 schoolchildren, Pakistan is essentially declaring war on the Taliban. The Taliban are not viewed monolithically in Pakistan, as they are in the West. Pakistan's army and the public generally approve of the Afghan Taliban, which attack American and NATO-allied targets in Afghanistan, including Afghanistan's government. And they also generally approve of the Punjabi Taliban, which attack India-linked targets, usually in Kashmir. That's why the first remarks by Pakistan's prime minister Nawaz Sharif, following the massacre, referred only to "terrorist" perpetrators, not to the Taliban. By Wednesday, Pakistanis were beginning to refer to the attack as "Pakistan's 9/11," and were calling for a full-scale attack on the Taliban. According to Sharif: We announce that there will be no differentiation between 'good' and 'bad' Taliban, and resolve to continue the war against terrorism till the last terrorist is eliminated. We have decided that all parliamentary and political leaders will form a national consensus to defeat terrorism. We ha

The Hoover Institution Library and Archives have long collected materials relating to Peronism, a movement, founded by Argentine leader Juan Domingo Peron, not easily classified on the political spectrum and one that continues to play a role in contemporary Argentina, whose current president and her predecessor both have a Peronist background. Among several collections relating to Peronism in the archives are the Juan Domingo Peron Papers , which were recently organized and given a finding aid, making the collection more accessible to researchers. Peron's political career can be viewed as a series of triumphs alternating with great reversals: he was president of Argentina from 1946 until 1955, when he was ousted in a military coup and forced into exile, a time spent mainly in Madrid, Spain; in 1973, he returned to Argentina, where he was again elected president, serving until his death in May 1974. During this time, the Peronist movement, never homogeneous, fractured into factions battling over the meaning of Justicialism, the name given by Peron to his political doctrine, which combined elements of nationalism, anti-imperialism, social welfare, and the corporatist state of fascist Italy . Acquired over a number of decades, and concentrating primarily on Peron's time in exile in Madrid, Spain, the Juan Domingo Peron Papers consist largely of correspondence between Peron and his lieutenants, both those in Argentina and those forced, like their leader, to live abroad. This

Certainly, Texas Gov. Rick Perry isn't the perfect presidential candidate. He often makes controversial and damaging statements. His performance in debates, including the one Tuesday night in New Hampshire, is dull at best, cringe-worthy at worst. And he supports granting in-state tuition to illegal immigrants -- a position that, for Republican primary voters, is as popular as supporting a nuclear-armed Iran. In fact, voters have sharply criticized Perry for these tuition breaks on the campaign trail. Some say the Texas law is a magnet for illegal immigration; others say it's just wrong to give a taxpayer-subsidized benefit to illegals. Both of these criticisms are valid. But still, conservatives should think long and hard before rejecting Perry and embracing an immigration hardliner. Next year's election is going to be close, and harsh anti-illegal immigration chatter, like that from front-runners Mitt Romney and Herman Cain, will cost Republicans valuable votes. Whether or not you support Perry, the truth is he's the last GOP candidate who is able to take Hispanic votes from Obama in 2012, and in so doing, deliver the White House to Republicans. Hispanics are the fastest growing population and capturing their vote is crucial. In 2008, two-thirds of Latino voters supported Obama; and in Florida, the mother of all presidential swing states, Obama received 57 percent of the Latino vote. Hispanic support also helped Obama win other key states in 2008, like Nevada, New Mexico, a

Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State, US Department of State, will be visiting India on Wednesday. According to the US State Department, he will meet with senior Indian leaders to discuss further strengthening of India-US strategic partnership and collaboration on security in the Indo-Pacific region. His visit will also advance the agenda laid out by President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi during Modi's visit to the White House in June. Tillerson's first meeting is with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in New Delhi at 10 am after which he will pay tribute at Gandhi Smriti Museum. At 11.30 am, Tillerson is scheduled to meet Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj with whom he will have a working luncheon. Both leaders will then participate in a joint press conference in the national capital. At 1.30 pm, the US secretary of state will meet business executives and then will proceed to meet the staff and families of the US Embassy in New Delhi. Tillerson will round up his visit with a 4.30 pm meeting with Modi. US secretary of state Rex Tillerson arrives in India. PTI Ahead of his meeting, Tillerson had said that America's relationship with India is of strategic importance which is not limited to South Asia. He further added that the Trump administration was of the view that India can play a positive role in creating a peaceful and stable Afghanistan. "I think, our view of the relationship with India is one that's of strategic importance not just for this spec

Tye Tribbett, award-winning gospel recording artist, shared recently that although he agrees that homosexuality may be "natural," he does not believe it is "God's best for our lifestyle, according to the Bible." Speaking exclusively to Sister 2 Sister magazine about his observations on how some churches approach dealing with congregants who may experience same-sex attraction, Tribbett said he agreed with the interviewer's suggestion that homosexuality was "natural," but made it clear that he does not believe God approves of it. "There are lots of things that are natural to us that may not be God's best for us," he told the publication, which is featuring his interview in its April issue. "That's my only thing. I'm not saying that homosexuality is not natural. I agree with you that it is. There are several things that come naturally that's not God's best. Children 2 years old, 'Did you eat that cookie?' 'No.' Lying came naturally to them." He added, "Nobody taught that kid how to lie. It came in the flesh package, but that's not God's best. There are certain things that can trigger the not-so-great natural in all of us. But is it God's will or God's best for us, period? And I don't condemn homosexuality, but I don't believe it's God's best for our lifestyle, according to the Bible." This was not the first time the popular Christian artist spoke on homosexuality and feelings people might view as natural. Speaking in a video interview published online in 2008 about how much he

When Monsanto developed bovine growth hormone, the FDA determined it was safe. Fine and dandy. But when some milk producers labeled their food as being BGH-free, why Monsanto sued claiming that such labeling implied that their product was unsafe, and hence a form of defamation. In reality, Monsanto was bullying and eventually they lost that effort. In fact, I saw some BGH-free milk at the store just the other day. It cost about fifty cents more than the non labeled variety. I bought the cheaper milk because I don't think BGH is unsafe, but the choice was mine, not Monsanto's. I think the same principle applies to food that has been genetically engineered. It is almost surely safe. But why shouldn't consumers have the right to know what they are putting in their bodies? The question, is whether the FDA should require labeling. Forbes has run pro and con opinion articles on that question. Writing for the pro side was Michelle Maisto. From "With GMO Labels Still Missing, Look for the Opposite:" There's a lot of debate about whether or not it's safe to eat GM foods, but what's being argued for is simply that they be labeled. We're living in a time where it's illegal not to tell consumers if a product is made in a room where nuts are handled, but food can be tinkered with at the DNA level and no one is obligated to say so...Likewise, until companies are required to label GM foods, we can be savvier and more insistent about our food choices. There are increasing numbers of

Palestinian Mythology Palestinian Arabs claim full ownership of the Holy Land, denying any Jewish connection or rights--all based on deceptive lies, all easily proven false. In this era of "fake news," it's often hard to tell truth from fiction. Indeed, Palestinian Arab leaders have constructed an elaborate false mythology to justify their war against Israel and the Jewish people. It's time to lift the curtain on these myths--to separate truth from fabrication. What are the facts? "Peace between Israel and the Palestinians must be based on the truth and good faith." Every ethnic group has the right to create its own narrative--but such a narrative should be based on truth, especially when it denies others' rights. We may disagree on interpretation, but at least we should agree on the facts. So, let us consider five cornerstones of the Palestinian narrative and judge its moral strength by its adherence to the truth. We soon find that modern Palestinian myths are unfair attempts to disenfranchise the Jewish people from Israel--their ancestral homeland. 1. Palestinians are indigenous to the Holy Land: False. President Mahmoud Abbas often claims Palestinians are related to the Canaanites, a group that vanished 4,000 years ago. This claim has no basis in archeological or genetic research. Nearly all Palestinians trace their lineage to Arab lands. What's more, unlike the Jews, Palestinians have no unique language, culture or religion--essential markers of indigenous peoples. Indeed

In what amounted to a love letter to California's Democratic Governor Jerry Brown on Thursday's NBC Nightly News, special correspondent Tom Brokaw gushed: "It's not sunshine every day for the California economy, but Jerry Brown has not given up on big dreams. His new big dream, a high-speed rail line from the north to the south..." Anchor Brian Williams set the scene for Brokaw's fawning report: "California is mounting a comeback led by a man whose name has been synonymous with California government for decades." Brokaw sympathetically declared: "The one-time boy wonder of California politics is now the state's aging lion ....Sticking up for his state." Trying to put a positive spin on the state's continuing economic woes, Brokaw began by arguing: "When California unemployment dropped to just over 11% last week, that was good news....A year ago, the budget deficit hit $26 billion plus. It's now about a 1/3 of that [$9.2 billion]." Brokaw framed Brown's call for tax hikes as essential: "But to make up the rest, Brown wants to raise the state's sales tax and he's asking Californians who pay the most taxes, the wealthy, to pay even more....Brown says it is the only way to protect the state's education system." Here is a full transcript of the January 26 report: 7:09PM ET BRIAN WILLIAMS: Another place where those [proposed military] cuts won't go over well is the state of California, which has a huge defense contracting industry and took a major hit when the state's massive housi

Fox's Peter Johnson, Jr., was wowed, just wowed on Fox & Friends this morning by a guest accusing the U.S. military of capitulating to jihadists for stopping an anti-Islamic extremist from teaching classes to military officers. Johnson was so enthralled by the accusation, he forgot to tell the "we report, you decide" network's viewers the nature of the instructor's views. For example: calling Islam "a barbaric ideology" that "will no longer be tolerated," and saying, "Islam must change or we will facilitate its self-destruction." The discussion was about Lt. Col. Matthew Dooley's threatened lawsuit against the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, for shutting down Dooley's elective class to military officers and for being given a negative Office Evaluation Report. Johnson, a lawyer himself, announced that the military had refused to respond for the segment. Apparently, Johnson felt that his obligation to do any research ended there. But a simple Google search would have told him - and possibly his viewers - that Dooley was promoting an extremist view of Islam and President Obama. As Danger Room recently reported: The course instructed senior officers at the lieutenant colonel, commander, colonel and Navy captain level that "there is no such thing as 'moderate Islam,'" and that wartime protections against civilians of Islamic countries were "no longer relevant." Materials distributed by Dooley's guest lecturers suggested inaccurately that President Obama

Ted Cruz and his call for pastors to protest against Planned Parenthood has me steamed up. I sent this letter to a friend about their plan to participate in the August 22nd action against Planned Parenthood, mostly because I am sick and tired of billionaires hijacking Christianity to jack up anger in order to win primaries and general elections in the name of Jesus. As a Christian, it makes me deeply angry and ashamed to see otherwise decent, good, well-meaning people get sucked into this deception, so I fought back the only way I know how: with facts and some Scripture to think about. I've edited the text somewhat to remove any personal references or otherwise cause embarrassment to people I care about, but this is the gist of it. TL;DR: Christians have no business spreading slander and lies while persecuting women most in need of Planned Parenthood's services. By now you surely know these videos were edited to intentionally paint Planned Parenthood in the most heinous light possible, and in one case, the Center for Medical Progress (funded by political groups with less of an interested in abortion rights than in getting out the evangelical vote in 2016) has already admitted they presented the last video in a false light, failing to tell viewers that the fetus was a stillborn, and not aborted, fetus. Donated fetal tissue is saving lives. Ask Dr. Ben Carson, who used it for some serious medical research before he decided to run for office. You personally may not like the fact

A growing movement of fast food workers has launched strikes, protests, and public pressure campaigns across the United States and world demanding an end to starvation wages and a minimum of $15 an hour, under the slogan "We are worth more!" Now, a just-released paper from economic researchers is affirming what those employees have long argued: such pay is doable, affordable, and would not require mass firings, despite the claims of industry heavyweights, from McDonald's to Wendy's. Entitled A $15 Minimum Wage: How the Fast-Food Industry Could Adjust Without Shedding Jobs , the paper was written by Robert Pollin, distinguished professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts - Amherst and co-director of the Political Economy Research Institute, and Jeannette Wicks-Lim, a PERI research assistant professor. Culling data from previous studies and U.S. Economic Census surveys, the researchers chart out the potential impact of a minimum wage increase, from $7.25 to $15 an hour over the course of four years, on the industry. Their conclusion? The fast food industry "could absorb the increase in its overall wage bill without resorting to cuts in their employment levels at any point over this four-year adjustment period." According to the researchers, this could be accomplished through "a combination of turnover reductions; trend increases in sales growth; and modest annual price increases over the four-year period." In fact, the paper finds, a $15 minimum wage would not eve

Jun 19 @BenjaminD I'll set out a couple ground rules for my assertions regarding homosexuality. They are meant solely for a Christian audience. While non-Christians can certainly benefit from agreeing with the truth of scripture, I don't expect them to accept the authority of scripture on small matters like what is and isn't sinful if they don't accept it as being authoritative on it's teaching that faith in the atoning work of Christ is the only way to Heaven. Because God fulfilled the law of the Old Covenant with his death on the cross, I don't think that Christians can legitimately use OT verses like the one in Leviticus 20 to condemn homosexual acts, especially not by themselves. Jesus' teaching on Marriage and Divorce indirectly addresses homosexuality by pointing to the creation narrative from Genesis specifically how God creating male and female at the beginning was the pattern and intent for marriage. Further, His condemnation of Sexual Immorality would have been understood by the contemporary Jewish audience homosexual sexual activity (Matthew 5:31-32, 19:1-12). It is in this context that it is appropriate to bring in OT verses like those from Leviticus. Not because they are still applicable directly, but rather because they define what the term "sexual immorality" would have meant to Jesus and the Apostles who continued in their general condemnations of sexual immorality (Acts 15:6-29, 19:25, 1 Corinthians 5:9-13, 6:13, 18-20, 7:2, 10:8, 2 Corinthians 12:21, Galatia

Ray Williams, who went from being a first-round NBA pick and team captain, to bankruptcy, homelessness, and eventually redemption, has passed away in a New York hospital, according to the Knicks. After a 10-year career that spanned six teams, including two stints with the Knicks, the star point guard ran into trouble immediately upon retirement in 1987. It wasn't drugs, or drink, or any specific failing--just a series of blows that were too much for a man who didn't know how to do anything but play basketball. A string of bad investments led him to file for bankruptcy, and Williams applied for and received his NBA pension at age 40. The grand total: $200,000, and he quickly lost it in a real estate scam. His wife and kids left him. He bounced around Florida, working alternately as a golf course groundskeeper, a maintenance man in an apartment complex, a mailman, a girls basketball coach, a bakery employee, a deliveryman, an auto shop worker. When Bob Hohler caught up with him in 2010 , he had become homeless, sleeping in shelters or on park benches or in abandoned cars. He fished every day, eating what he caught and selling the rest. He blamed the NBA for not doing enough for its retired players. "I'm not motivated by anger or revenge,'' Williams said. "I just believe there's a better way. Why should guys who are hurting have to wait until they're on their dying bed before they get the help they need?'' Williams turned it around towards the end. Larry Bird and Kevin McHale, h

A video posted on Facebook showing a dog trapped inside a car on a sunny day has gone viral following a tremendous response from social media users who have slammed the pet owner for their reckless behaviour in not realising that the dog could have died. While the dog owner has yet to be identified, two officers were said to have been called to a parking lot in Roswell, Georgia where they were stunned to see the animal breathing heavily in the passenger's seat of a silver vehicle. It should be noted that it was 97 degrees Fahrenheit outside and 150 degrees Fahrenheit inside the car, according to the Facebook caption. The video does show that while the car was locked, the front window is down. It is unclear whether the officer removed the window to save the pet or if the dog's owner had rolled it down before they evacuated their car. Either way, having the window down would not have made a difference to the condition of the dehydrated dog since he was laying down behind the front seat. It is also fair to assume that on a sunny day, chances of air blowing inside a non-moving vehicle are unlikely. If humans are already struggling to sit inside a car without air conditioning on, how are animals supposed to survive through it? Several Facebook users were so outraged, some insisted that the pet's owner should lose their rights of owning animals, calling them "reckless" and "inconsiderate" for leaving a dog inside a car on such a hot day. One user writes, "So disgusting. That dog is

LONDON (Reuters) - Combining two types of polio vaccine, including one that is injected rather than given orally, appears to give better immunity and could speed efforts to eradicate the crippling disease, scientists said on Friday. British and Indian researchers said the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), which is given by injection, could provide better and longer lasting protection if given alongside the more commonly used live oral polio vaccine (OPV). Serious polio outbreaks in Asia, Africa and Europe over the last 10 years have hampered efforts to wipe out the disease, caused by a virus that replicates in the gut and can be passed on through contact with infected faeces. Polio invades the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis within hours - and the World Health Organisation's repeated warning is that as long as any child remains infected with polio, children everywhere are at risk. Most vaccination campaigns - including emergency ones that were started last year covering 20 million children in Syria and neighbouring countries - use multiple doses of OPV to boost immunity among those at risk. "Because IPV is injected into the arm, rather than taken orally, it's been assumed it doesn't provide much protection in the gut and so would be less effective at preventing faecal transmission than OPV," said Jacob John, an associate professor at the India's Christian Medical College, who led the study. But his team's research, which covered 450 children from a densely

Manipulating people isn't something to be proud of. Granted, marketing campaigns and large corporations know how to leverage the emotions of people. The same goes for politicians. However, at what cost? For Al Gore, the cost of manipulating people comes at the price that negates industrialization in some of the poorest places in the world. And that, my friends, is the reason why the former Vice President shows no regard for the poor. As Gore prepares for the release of An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power , his highly anticipated sequel to his Academy Award winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth , people will continue to buy into the idea that the crisis of energy poverty comes second to climate change. This is entirely unacceptable. Many of the world's issues of poverty can be solved with the implementation of policies that advocate for energy affordability. However, this only can be achieved through legacy methods of energy generation--not forcing the reliance on energy production on intermittent renewable energy sources like wind and solar. You may have heard this sentiment before, but manufacturing wind turbines, specifically, is expensive and requires raw and finished materials created by petroleum products, fossil fuels, and rare earth metals. Plus, wind turbines are unreliable as a source of primary electrical generation. When they don't spin, there is no power. When the wind picks up and the turbines spin too fast, they're shut off. Unless there is some place

Still don't believe that flags cause violence? Think again. A Racine man has pleaded not guilty to pushing a woman, and forcing his way into her house to remove her Confederate flag from a window. 37-year-old Tajuan Boatner is charged with five misdemeanor counts of battery, theft, trespassing, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct. Prosecutors say Boatner politely asked the woman to remove her Confederate flag from a kitchen window last Friday. She moved it to another window, and they started arguing. Authorities said the woman called Boatner a racial slur, and he pushed her down and walked in her house to remove the flag. WITI, Milwaukee: She had a Confederate flag and she called somebody a racial slur for asking her to take it down? And now the black guy is in jail for it? Typical. Don't give me that "private property" nonsense. The Confederate flag's mind-control rays don't just magically stop at the property line. It makes people do bad things no matter where it is. This man was perfectly within his rights to take it down, and the white man's police department has no right to hold him against his will. Black lives matter. Free Tajuan Boatner! P.S. Upon further consideration, I'm not sure we should even use the name of that evil flag anymore. But calling it "the C-word flag" would be confusing, because of the other C-word. "That racist flag" would hardly narrow it down. Hmmmm. What's the least offensive term for the C********** flag?

GSA Network staff are gearing up for Give OUT Day. In front, from left, are Tomas Rodriguez, Sarah Hyde, Rhina Ramos, Aldo Gallardo, and Eli Chi. In back, from left, are Neda Said, Chris White, David Bracamontez, and Geoffrey Winder. (Source:Charlie Wagner) The LGBT community's largest, and only, national online fundraising effort - Give OUT Day - is approaching, and those involved with past efforts say that support is needed now more than ever. Give OUT Day, Thursday, April 20, is a 24-hour online fundraising event that aims to unite donors and nonprofit organizations from across the country to raise critically needed funds. For the second year, it's being produced and managed by San Francisco-based Horizons Foundation. Over 23,000 individual donors have contributed more than $3 million to 500-plus different organizations in every part of the country since the first Give OUT Day in 2013, noted Roger Doughty, president of Horizons. The minimum donation is only $10. "In the current political climate, we know that many people are looking for ways to contribute to the resistance," Doughty said, "and a key part of Horizons' mission is to increase funding nationally for LGBTQ organizations. This year Give OUT Day is so important because the vast majority of nonprofits are getting only a fraction of the resources they need. Horizons can help them raise money even if their own fundraising capacity is limited." All nonprofits serving the LGBTQ community incorporated as a 501(c)(3) o

Brad Dacus was thousands of miles away in California last weekend when the Charlottesville protest erupted, so he was flabbergasted when CNN labeled his Pacific Justice Institute a "hate group." "Here are all the active hate groups where you live," said the CNN wire story headline on Chicago's WGN-TV website. The article listed the 917 organizations on the Southern Poverty Law Center's much-disputed "hate map," which names racist groups like the Aryan Nation alongside mainstream conservative organizations such as the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Family Research Council. Mr. Dacus' conservative Sacramento-based institute, which specializes in religious-liberty cases, was featured on the CNN list right below the Pacific Coast Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. "Why is the Southern Poverty Law Center doing this? It's simple. They want to vilify and isolate anyone that doesn't agree with their very extremist leftist policy and ideology," said Mr. Dacus. "This isn't about defending civil rights; this is about attacking civil rights." Related Story: Reminder - The Southern Poverty Law Center is a fraud and nobody should treat them as responsible actors Other conservative groups blasted CNN and called on the cable network to retract the article. "I am shocked that CNN would publish such a false report on the heels of the Charlottesville tragedy," said Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel's founder and chairman. "To lump peaceful Christian organizations, which condemn violence and racism, in

Written by Stan Schroeder over 3 years ago Written by Arthur Holland Michel over 3 years ago Written by Elif Koc over 3 years ago Written by Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai over 3 years ago Written by Rex Santus over 3 years ago Written by Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai over 3 years ago Written by Chris Taylor over 3 years ago Travis Kalanick, your Senate investigation is arriving now. After two days of bad press for Uber -- starting with the revelation that one of its executives suggested investigating the private lives of journalists, continuing with a bizarre Twitter ap... Written by Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai over 3 years ago Written by Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai almost 4 years ago Written by Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai almost 4 years ago

Legislation for a 20-week abortion ban will head to the Senate for a vote on Monday after an announcement from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. "As many as 25,000 preborn babies are aborted after the 20 th week of pregnancy each year in the U.S. This bill would prohibit the majority of these abortions. Twenty-five thousand lives are at stake here," Focus on the Family president, Jim Daly, told the Daily Caller News Foundation regarding Monday's vote. "It's imperative that we pass this bill in the Senate," he added. The bill, also known as the pain capable act, makes it illegal for a person to perform or attempt to perform an abortion after 20-weeks gestation of pregnancy. Transgressors would face fines and up to five years in prison. The legislation does include exemptions for rape victims, however, but only if the woman received medical treatment or counseling at least 48 hours before the abortion. Planned Parenthood wrote on their website that "nearly 99 percent of abortions occur before 21 weeks." "It's just a matter of time until we get 60 votes," bill sponsor GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carlina said, vowing to "get the country where it needs to be on this issue." "There are only 7 countries left that still permit elective abortion after 20 weeks--including the US, China, and North Korea. That's why the # Senate will soon vote to take up commonsense legislation to protect unborn children who can feel pain," McConnell tweeted in support of the measure. S

Thursday evening, an unbylined Associated Press item finally recognized the existence of Democratic National Committee Deputy Chair Keith Ellison's tweet taunting President Trump with a violence-advocating "antifa" book accompanied by a grammar-challenged message: " I just found the book that strike fear in the heart of @realDonaldTrump." The obvious purpose of the gatekeeping wire service's piece was to tell the rest of the establishment press: "There's nothing to see here." Ellison is also a six-term congressman representing Minnesota's 5th District, and was considered the front-runner to become DNC Chair in early 2017. However, allies of Barack Obama and other Democrats concerned about some of the Congressman's previous comments, particularly a 2010 speech where he, per NPR , questioned the "value of the United States focusing so much of its Middle Eastern foreign policy on support for Israel" -- in Ellison's words , how that policy "is governed by what is good or bad through a country of 7 million people" out of "a region of 350 million" -- opposed him. Instead, Democrats ultimately picked former Labor Secretary Tom Perez. In a conciliatory gesture, Perez promptly named Ellison to the not officially recognized position of Deputy Chair. Ellison's position as Deputy Chair makes him a de facto spokesperson for his party, and that the following tweet he posted Wednesday afternoon expressed de facto support for the violent "antifa" movement (HT Daily Caller ): Wide knowledge o

People hold fans at an Impulse San Francisco event at Oasis. Photo: FEBE (Source:FEBE) Whether through dance parties and bar events or more intimate salon-like settings with invited health officials and other speakers, the Impulse Group aims to engage and inform gay men around the globe about how to take care of their own health needs and that of their peers. Since launching more than seven years ago in West Hollywood, the volunteer-run organization now has chapters throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia. Its San Francisco chapter formed in October 2016 and has held a number of gatherings, both educational and entertaining, for members over the last year. Topics addressed by the local Impulse chapter have included safe-sex practices, drug education and harm reduction, and racial disparities, particularly those faced by gay black men, within the LGBTQ community. "The feedback we get is it is diverse, engaging, and welcoming," said Jeremy Joseph, 34, a gay man who is president of the local chapter and works for Genentech. Gay Los Angeles resident Jose Ramos, 37, founded Impulse as a way to inform gay men, particularly those in their 20s and 30s, about the latest advancements in HIV prevention and care. The idea was sparked when his best friend learned in 2009 that he was living with AIDS. "After my friend was diagnosed, a lot more friends were becoming HIV-positive. Something was missing," said Ramos. "When I looked at the HIV community in West Hollywood, there w

Hillary Clinton is keenly aware of the reality that she is facing an uphill battle to win a fraction of the energetic support that African Americans gave to President Obama in 2008 and 2012. This is evident by the direct attention she is giving to issues that are important to black communities. In her first campaign policy speech, Clinton addressed issues including health care, increases to minimum-wage and criminal justice reform. She has called for the end of the "era of mass incarceration"-an era for which her husband, former President Bill Clinton, is partly responsible. Most recently, Clinton has called for the expansion of early voting, automatic registration of all citizens at the age of 18, and the strengthening of the Voting Rights Act. Each of these proposals stand to benefit minority and impoverished communities. In many ways, Hillary Clinton has put issues that are important to the black community in the forefront of her campaign. But still, is this enough? What is far more important than speeches and policy positions that ostensibly address the problems that face the black community is for Clinton-and any other candidate for that matter-to begin to address the reasons why many of these issues disproportionately affect the black community. Why is it that so many blacks are dependent upon minimum wage jobs instead of careers? She needs to begin to ask why it is that blacks are disproportionately prison-fodder in this "era of mass incarceration." Why are African Ame

Carolyn Bigda : 8 Best Dividend Stocks for 2015 Kiplinger's Personal Finance editors : 7 Things You Didn't Know About Paying Off Student Loans Samantha Olson : The Crucial Mistake 55% Of Parents Are Making At Their Baby's Bedtime Densie Well, Ph.D., R.D. Open your eyes to yellow vegetables The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon With its colorful cache of purples and oranges and reds, COLLARD GREEN SLAW is a marvelous mood booster --- not to mention just downright delish April 18, 2014 Rabbi Yonason Goldson : Clarifying one of the greatest philosophical conundrums in theology Caroline B. Glick : The disappearance of US will Megan Wallgren : 10 things I've learned from my teenagers John Ericson : Trying hard to be 'positive' but never succeeding? Blame Your Brain The Kosher Gourmet by Julie Rothman Almondy, flourless torta del re (Italian king's cake), has royal roots, is simple to make, . . . but devour it because it's simply delicious Rabbi Dr Naftali Brawer : Passover frees us from the tyranny of time Greg Crosby : Passing Over Religion Eric Schulzke : First degree: How America really recovered from a murder epidemic Georgia Lee : When love is not enough: Teaching your kids about the realities of adult relationships Cameron Huddleston : Freebies for Your Lawn and Garden Gordon Pape : How you can tell if your financial adviser is setting you up for potential ruin Dana Dovey : Up to 500,000 people die each year from hepatitis C-related liver disease. New Treatment Has Over 90% Suc

New Delhi: The Opposition on Tuesday asked the government to adopt a humanitarian approach on the 'sensitive' issue of Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC) while ensuring that no Indian was left out of it. While the Congress demanded that the government tread cautiously on the issue, the Trinamool Congress sought complete withdrawal of the NRC, alleging that Indian citizens have also been left out of the final draft. The issue was discussed in the Rajya Sabha during the Question Hour which was dispensed with by Chairman Venkaiah Naidu who termed it as a "serious and sensitive" matter. File image of home minister Rajnath Singh. PTI Soon after the Upper House met, it was adjourned for an hour after the Opposition created an uproar. Initiating the discussion, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Congress said it was a humanitarian issue and not a matter of any particular caste, religion or region. "We don't want any person to be driven out of the country. This is not only about 40 lakh people, if you consider their children, families, it comes to 1-1.5 crore people," Azad claimed, adding that the issue may have international ramifications, especially India's relation with 'close friend' Bangladesh. He observed that the onus of proving identity as a citizen of India should lie upon not just on an individual but the government as well. Azad said the government should make legal provisions for the affected persons and there should be no harassment.

As North Korea develops an intercontinental nuclear capability, President Donald Trump has veered from forbearance to frustration regarding China's role. Earlier this summer Trump told Chinese President Xi Jinping, "I appreciate the things that you have done" on North Korea; more recently, however, his tweets have been laced with irritation. "They do nothing for us with North Korea, just talk," Trump declared. "We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!" Beijing may have temporarily mollified the Trump administration, which was pleased by Chinese support for tighter UN sanctions against North Korea. despite Washington's hopes, China won't solve the North Korea problem, regardless of how often the Trump administration insists that it can or must. To be sure, Beijing has leverage over Pyongyang; trade with China comprises 90% of North Korea's trade, including vital imports such as food and oil. Furthermore, North Korean businesses have set up joint ventures with Chinese firms, which allow Pyongyang access to the global economy. Beijing could crack down on these relationships. While China has leverage, it won't use it to pressure North Korea. As I found in recent conversations with scholars and government officials in Beijing, the Chinese diagnose the problem and its solution very differently, and have very different interests at stake. The Americans see North Korea as a dangerous rogue state that broke international law to acquire nuclear

The poor little lab rats had no idea what was coming. The researchers wanted to test the anxiolytic effects of the cannabis compound cannabidiol (CBD) , and what better way to check anxiety levels than by tossing mice into a space with a wild snake. Mickey's worst nightmare, however, did reveal helpful information about the plant's effect on mood. The researchers divided the snake bait into two groups: one injected with CBD and the other untreated as the control group. How did the mice react? The findings, published in the CNS & Neurological Disorders Drug Targets journal in 2014, said the control group freaked out while the mice medicated with CBD demonstrated "significant and robust" levels of calm. The findings of similar studies in 2009 and 2012 involving CBD, mice and snakes also came to the same conclusion. At this point, it is important to note that CBD is not a psychoactive substance, so the medicated mice were not simply too stoned to care. Furthermore, the Journal of Psychiatric Research published an equally sadistic study in 2012 that highlighted other anxiety-related benefits. The 2012 study "Cannabidiol blocks long-lasting behavioral consequences of predator threat stress" involved tossing mice into a space with a cat, spiking their anxiety and then treating them with CBD one hour later. The researchers concluded, "Repeated CBD administration prevents the long-lasting anxiogenic effects observed after predator exposure ... [and] our results suggest that CBD has b

Facebook on Monday published a note pointing to Newt Gingrich as an example of the one of the most " Facebook savvy " politicians on the social network. "Gingrich's Facebook page is a great example of providing many ways for supporters to get involved, catering to every level of engagement while equally promoting all of the tabs," Facebook's political team wrote in the post . "Remember, a cool application or an engaging tab is useless unless you promote it to your fans and explain why they should engage." Specifically, Facebook applauded Gingrich for using "a wide variety of tabs on his Facebook page to take the pulse of the public," including one for WayIn , a quick mobile polling app, which Gingrich has used to poll his Facebook "friends" over such insightful matters as "With Newt I am optimistic about America's future," (92 percent agree) and "Will you vote in 2012?" (91 percent agree). Moreover, Facebook associate manager for policy Katie Harbath praised Gingrich's call center page for using built-in Facebook integration, allowing users to see which of their Facebook Friends made calls on behalf of the candidate and how many calls those people made. Facebook also commended the savvy social networking skills of House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), for encouraging "members of the Republican caucus to share the 'GOP Jobs Plan' tab," 2012 Texas Republican Senatorial candidate Ted Cruz, the former state solicitor general, for using a tab to "highlight his state endorsements," an

K-12 education in the nation's capital has struggled for decades. Yet since 2003, the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program-a voucher program open to low-income children in the District of Columbia-has been a bright spot for educational opportunity. But a new report released by the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education, released Tuesday, found that students who participate in the D.C. scholarship program had worse math scores after two years than a control group of students who applied for a scholarship but did not receive one. The scientifically rigorous evaluation found that scholarship recipients were doing worse in math after two years, but that the program had increased parent and student perceptions of school safety. Study authors Mark Dynarski, Ning Rui, Ann Webber, and Babette Gutmann found that the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program had a statistically significant negative impact on scholarship users' math achievement after two years of participation. Students with a scholarship had math scores that were 10 percentile points lower than students who applied for, but were not awarded, a scholarship. Reading achievement scores were three percentile points lower for scholarship students, but the difference was not significant. The D.C. scholarship program appears to be demonstrating in real time what the University of Arkansas's Jay Greene suggested recently in a widely cited post: Schools and programs that increase test scores quite of

French Mirage 2000 D aircraft flying to Mali (Richard Nicolas-Nelson / Ecpad) The bloodshed at the In Amenas gas facility in Algeria has brought into focus the deteriorating situation in north and west Africa and the role of France in the region. The rhetoric of the "long war" against terrorism is back. So is Western military involvement in yet another region. About fifty of the more than eighty people killed in the Algerian siege were foreign and local Arab hostages, captured in the country's vast southeastern desert. On the surface, it was difficult to agree with the Algerian government's assertion, greeted by reluctant nods in Western capitals, that the military operation by Algeria's special forces was a success. All except a few militants were also killed, but almost certainly they had gone there to die, and kill as many of their hostages as they could to gain worldwide publicity. Escape across open desert when the Algerian military and others had their eyes on the besieged gas facility was a forlorn hope. The Algerian prime minister, Abdelmalek Sallal, said that among the hostage-takers were Canadian citizens, and the militant group had help of inside knowledge. Canadian passports were found on two charred bodies, and Britain's Channel 4 News reported there being gunmen also from Algeria, as well as Mali, Niger, and Libya, from where they drove to the remote facility some fifty miles away. These emerging facts contradicted the British Foreign Secretary William Hague's d

President Donald Trump delivered the commencement speech at the U.S. Naval Academy's graduation ceremony in Annapolis, Maryland on Friday and vowed to shake the hand of each outgoing student. "I could make this commencement address -- which is a great honor for me -- and immediately leave and wave goodbye."-- More... Trump: "I could make this commencement address ... and immediately leave and wave goodbye ... Or I could stay for hours and shake hands with 1,100 and something. What should I do? What should I do? I'll stay, I'll stay!" pic.twitter.com/qsJ220pnHW -- Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) May 25, 2018 Pres. Trump shook the hands of graduates of the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland for nearly 90 minutes this afternoon. Here's every single one in 41 seconds. https://t.co/tnCnBSEGXL pic.twitter.com/3hVGNQSEOh -- ABC News (@ABC) May 25, 2018 Please SHARE this story as the only way for CFP to beat Facebook anti-Conservative Suppression. Breitbart News is a Syndicated news and opinion website providing continuously updated headlines to top news and analysis sources. Pursuant to Title 17 U.S.C. 107, other copyrighted work is provided for educational purposes, research, critical comment, or debate without profit or payment. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for your own purposes beyond the 'fair use' exception, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Views are those of authors and not necessarily those of Canada Free Press. Content is C

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com UK bitterly sends troops back Afghanistan's Helmand province Number of migrants entering Europe this year passes the one million mark UK bitterly sends troops back Afghanistan's Helmand province Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers in Helmand on Monday (AFP) As we wrote two days ago, Taliban forces in Afghanistan are scoring victory after victory in Helmand province. Some reports indicate that the crucial city of Sangin has been captured, and that all of Helmand province is in danger of falling. To bolster desperate Afghan government forces, Britain said on Tuesday that it was sending some forces back to Helmand province. A unit of about 30 soldiers from Britain's elite Special Air Service (SAS) and up to 60 U.S. special forces have been sent to bolster the Afghan forces to defend the town, but the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said that they were not sent there to fight, but only to advise. Britain ended combat operations in Afghanistan last year, but before then it was British troops that were mainly fighting the Taliban in Helmand. Sangin became known as "the most dangerous place in Helmand" because of the ferocity of attacks that claimed the lives of 106 British service personnel. The body count rose as the first UK units endured the most intense ground fighting since the Korean war, fighting for control of a district that was a major prize for Taliban fighters because of its lucrative opium trade. Many UK mothers are

The problem with the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations is that the world has conceded to the Palestinians the exact result they desire, rather than requiring the result to emerge from bilateral negotiations with the Israelis. Whether there is to exist a two-state solution - and what the borders and qualities of that sovereign and independent state ought to be - should be precisely the question that remains to be answered. Instead, the international community has signaled to the Palestinians that they are entitled to a state no matter what. This sense of entitlement predates the UN General Assembly's Resolution 181 in 1947, which recommended partitioning the area then known as Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state - a proposal that the Palestine Arab Higher Committee rejected in favor of war after Israel declared independence in May of 1948. Although Israel sustained punishing losses over the ensuing eight months of fighting, it managed to expand its territory and solidify its existence. Since then, the Arab and Palestinian communities continue to operate under the belief that aggression and terrorism are costless strategies, and that if these tactics fail to achieve better results, they can simply seek the original terms later. The latest attempt at this extortionist strategy is the Palestinians' plan to seek statehood next month at the UN via a unilateral declaration of independence. The plan is fraught with problems, beginning with the fact that the UN is only capa

TEHRAN - Iranian Ambassador to Baku Mohsen Paka'ein asserts that the tripartite meeting between presidents of Iran, Russia, and Azerbaijan in Baku on August 8 will open a new chapter in regional cooperation between the three countries. During the two-day visit, both bilateral and tripartite meetings have been scheduled, where issues such as energy, fight on terrorism, and economy are high on agenda, the ambassador told the Tehran Times in an exclusive interview. In what follows, a transcript of the interview has been given: Q: In a recent interview with the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), your Excellency had hailed bilateral ties between Tehran and Baku as "strategic". How do you support your stance? A: I reiterate my comment to describe relations between the two neighboring countries as strategic. The stance can be supported at least from three perspectives. Initially, the two countries share numerous cultural, religious, and historical bonds, not breakable easily. Also, the two countries offer great capacities in the transportation sector in all four areas of maritime, land, rail, and air. In the energy sector also the two can have closest ties particularly in swapping Baku's gas to Nakhchivan and oil to the Persian Gulf and cooperation in joint oil fields in the Caspian Sea. Moreover, Tehran and Baku can expand bilateral trade considering that the each needs commodities produced by the other. This particularly becomes meaningful when factors such as short distan

Paris: France's president on Monday welcomed the German chancellor and the prime ministers of Italy and Spain to Paris, where the leaders held a summit to examine security measures that can be taken by the European Union to tackle the threat of terrorism. French president Emmanuel Macron. Reuters Emmanuel Macron received Angela Merkel, Paolo Gentiloni and Mariano Rajoy at the Elysee Palace, the seat of the French presidency, just 11 days after a series of terror attacks struck the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia, Efe reported. Following the attacks of 17 August, which left 15 people dead in Barcelona and one victim dead in the seaside town of Cambrils, Rajoy requested from Macron that the talks touch upon how the European Union could collaborate more in the fight against terror. Spain's government was hopeful that all possible European Union security mechanisms would be put in place to render its counter-terror mission effective as well as to facilitate the rapid sharing of intelligence between European Union member states. The summit on terror was preceded by a separate meeting on migration, which was attended by the European Union's foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini, the presidents of Niger and Chad, Issoufou Mahamadou and Idriss Deby, and the chairman of the Libyan presidential council, Fayez al-Sarraj, as well as the four European Union leaders who took part in the terror summit. The meeting in Paris follows a similar summit held at the Palace of Versaill

Chinese tourists in PH up by 70% - DOT Published 7:49 PM, December 18, 2013 Updated 4:16 PM, November 26, 2014 ARRIVAL. Tourists arrive at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. File photo by EPA MANILA, Philippines - Has the Philippines-China dispute over the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) adversely affected tourism in the country? According to Department of Tourism (DOT) Secretary Ramon Jimenez, numbers show "quite the opposite." The tourism chief told Rappler on Tuesday, December 17, via a text message that tourist arrivals from China are up by 69.55% based on January-October 2013 data and compared to the same period in 2012. The territorial clash has been a source of tension for both countries. The April 2012 naval standoff at Scarborough Shoal - which saw the apprehension of Chinese fishing vessels by the Philippine Navy - brought the two countries to a point of mutual animosity. A foreign policy expert previously told Rappler that China was "overreacting" as it sees the Philippines as a US proxy, a perception reinforced by Philippine-US war games near Scarborough Shoal a month after the April incident. The uptick of Chinese tourists in the Philippines is even more notable, as 6.21% of the Philippines' 3.9 million tourists in 2012 also came from China . More tourist arrivals from different countries are expected this Christmas. 70% decline since 2010? Despite the increase in tourist arrivals from China this year, however, Korean tourists have taken over the Chine

Kathryn Moody : Investors, Are You Ready for the Next Global Crisis? Manuel Schiffres Mutual Fund Rankings, 2014 Meghan Streit : Pitching In When Caregivers Need Help Janet Bond Brill, Ph.D., R.D.N., F.A.N.D : How to prevent a second (and first) heart attack thru diet The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington : Caprese is a light, fresh salad; the perfect quick and easy accompaniment to any summer meal Mark Steyn : You Want Nazis? Jonathan Tobin : Care about the Jewish state's future? Obama, in interview, reveals even more reasons to worry Alan M. Dershowitz : Confirmed: Needless death and destruction in Gaza Katie Nielsen : As a mother, I'm all I need to be Cameron Huddleston : 18 Retailers That Offer Price Adjustments Nellie S. Huang : The Best Health Mutual Funds to Buy Now Brierly Wright, M.S., R.D. : Try these 'secret-weapon' foods to boost your changes of losing weight The Kosher Gourmet by Jessica Yadegaran : Take some relish in pickled goodies (5 recipes!) Kimberly Lankford : 50 Ways to Cut Your Health Care Costs James K. Glassman : Investors, Are You Ready for the Next Global Crisis? The Kosher Gourmet by Nick Malgieri : Chocolate molten delight with creme anglaise is a simple yet elegant make-ahead dessert Saudi Arabia appears to be in the middle of an attempt to rebrand the kingdom as progressive and, judging from the headlines since last year, the strategy appears to be working, at least to some extent. Last September, the kingdom announced it would finally a

On Wednesday, President Obama visited the Islamic Society of Baltimore in Maryland. It was the first time in his presidency he visited a US mosque. The president delivered an impassioned speech urging Americans to exhibit tolerance toward Muslims at a time when Islamophobia has a very real impact in American communities. His visit to the mosque was long overdue, given Obama is in his final year in office, but it was also very timely for unfortunate reasons. The Obama speech was a v good & important (if belated) speech. It's just a shame we live in an era where he *had* to give it. #mosquevisit -- Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) February 3, 2016 "Here at this Mosque, twice last year, threats were made against your children.'- @POTUS at #MosqueVisit in #MD -- Senator Ben Cardin (@SenatorCardin) February 3, 2016 "Recently, we've heard inexcusable political rhetoric against Muslim Americans that has no place in our country." --@POTUS #MosqueVisit -- White House Live (@WHLive) February 3, 2016 Religious tolerance is one of the founding principles of the US, and it's important for our leaders to reiterate that, particularly when tolerance is threatened. "As Americans, we have to stay true to our core values, that includes freedom of religion--for all faiths." - @POTUS #MosqueVisit -- Elite Daily (@EliteDaily) February 3, 2016 Here are nine of the most powerful quotes from the president's speech, all of which remind us it's possible for people of multiple faiths and backgrounds to live t

After the Newtown, Connecticut mass murder , anti-rights politicians and media shifted into high gear. The only "solution" for such a tragedy was another gun ban; within two days, Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced her version. Pundits like the Washington Post's Ezra Klein politicized the tragedy by claiming that America is an unusually violent place, with the only answer being more gun control. There's a problem with all of their hyperbole: it is based upon myth and manipulated data. I personally believed in civilian disarmament until an acquaintance in law enforcement challenged my gun-banner's assumptions with questions and points I could not rebut. This began a research journey limited only by my decision to exclude any data cited by the NRA. At the time, I was convinced only caring people like the Brady Campaign would present the truth. Surprisingly (to me, at the time), I found no dataset proving civilian disarmament made anybody safer. In response to Ezra Klein's report titled " Twelve facts about guns and mass shootings in the United States ," below are eight fictions about gun control. Do note: all data cited below are from sources supportive of gun control. Fiction 1: Armed Resistance Does Not Stop Mass Murders The FBI defines mass murder as "a number of murders (four or more) occurring during the same incident, with no distinctive time period between the murders." Mother Jones , which Klein cites, claims armed civilians don't stop mass murderers. Newtown certainl

President Barack Obama Thursday authorized "targeted airstrikes" against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) if needed to keep United States personnel at the Consulate in Erbil safe. Airstrikes could also be used to prevent the annihilation of minority groups such as the Iraqi Yazidis. The Yazidis were forced to flee into the mountains without any provisions at all after ISIS overran the town of Sinjar in last week's fighting. According to Iraq's state-run National Media center, 45 ISIS fighters were killed and injured last Friday during an Iraqi airstrike in the northern town of Sinjar. The second operation authorized by President Obama is "a humanitarian effort to help save thousands of Iraqi civilians who are trapped on a mountain without food and water and facing almost certain death". The Yazidis are ancient Kurdish descendants, whose faith is considered pre-Isalmic, drawing from Judaism and Christianity and Zoroastrianism. BBC World Service (on air) reported this morning that none of the aid dropped in by air has so far reached the Yazidis who are in dire need of water, food and shelter. The daytime temperature in the mountains can reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) and fall to freezing at night. It was also reported that what aid has been authorized is far too little to stave off starvation of large numbers of people. Erbil, also called Irbil and Arbil, is the capital of Kurdistan. If Kurdistan falls, Turkey would be vulnerable to ISIS and the U.

There are 15,000 patriotic transgender Americans in the US military fighting for all of us. What happened to your promise to fight for them? https://t.co/WzjypVC8Sr -- Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) July 26, 2017 Caitlyn Jenner took to Twitter Wednesday to voice her outrage with President Donald Trump's announcement he would ban transgender people from military service -- a reversal of the Pentagon's decision last year to allow transgender troops to openly serve. The major policy shift, announced on Twitter, caught almost everyone outside of the White House off guard -- from lawmakers in Trump's own party to reporters and even Pentagon staffers . It also apparently surprised Jenner, who endorsed Trump in the 2016 election -- despite coming out as transgender several years ago, after living 65-years as Bruce Jenner, an Olympic gold medalist. "There are 15,000 patriotic transgender Americans in the US military fighting for all of us," Jenner tweeted at Trump. "What happened to your promise to fight for them?" Trump said in a tweet during the 2016 election that he would "fight" for the LGBT community, adding that Hillary Clinton would "[bring] in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs." Jenner has defended her decision to vote for Trump in a number of interviews , arguing she would "try to enlighten President Trump or anyone about transgender rights that these are real issues because these are real people suffering." And then, to no one's shock (except Jenner

Traditionally, the point of presidential debates has been fairly straightforward. Candidates and their campaign teams saw the events as opportunities to demonstrate a command of the issues, tout the strengths of their platforms, knock the flaws in their opponents' platforms, all while appearing presidential on a national platform. Donald Trump neither knows nor cares about the traditional point of presidential debates, and the result was a genuinely bizarre spectacle unlike anything Americans have ever seen. Given Hillary Clinton's obvious advantages - on competence, stature, coherence, etc. - it's tempting to describe this year's second presidential debate as an example of chess vs. checkers, but that would understate matters. Last night was a more an example of chess vs. professional wrestling. It started with a ridiculous photo-op with several '90s-era Bill Clinton accusers ahead of the debate, only to intensify during the debate itself. Trump ignored questions, whiffed on substance, lied repeatedly, delivered gutter attacks, all while trashing democratic norms in ways fair-minded observers should have found terrifying. Trump has apparently earned some pundit praise for delivering a "spirited" performance, which is true, though hardly admirable. A toddler throwing a tantrum may appear spirited in the midst of a meltdown, but Americans shouldn't want the child making life-and-death decisions from the Oval Office. Others have lauded Trump's willingness to be "aggressive" dur

Welcome to another edition of Derp Roundup, our weekly collection of cranky crap that wasn't worth a full post, but was too incandescently stoopid to ignore altogether. First up, Bryan Fischer told all his followers on Twitter today to go read this shocking billion-word expose of what Teh Ghey is really all about, as explained by Ronald G. Lee, a Catholic gay guy who discovered that for all the talk of gay marriage, and for that matter, of "gay culture," the only thing really going on among gay people is constant promiscuous sex and porn. He has even discovered the perfect metaphor to explain this indisputable science fact: When he was a grad student in Austin, he went to Lobo's, a "gay" bookstore that had "gay" fiction and poetry, "gay" memoirs, and books about the "gay rights" movement in the front of the store (happily, he mostly gives up the scare quotes after the first couple paragraphs), but the back of the store, in "a section not visible from the street" was where the real money got made, because that's where all the porn was. And all that stuff in the front was just a facade, but a vital facade (metaphor time here!): The owners of Lobo's were apparently wasting a lot of money on gay novels and works of gay history, when all the real money was in pornography. But the money spent on books wasn't wasted. It was used to purchase a commodity that is more precious than gold to the gay rights establishment. Respectability. Respectability and the appearance of normalcy. With

Print There never was an abolitionist movement within the Islamic world to end slavery, as Mohammed himself owned slaves. The U.S. State Department in 1993 estimated 90,000 Southern Sudanese were captured and taken into slavery by North African Arabs. Yazidi and non-Muslim women have been forced into sex slavery by the Islamic State. UNICEF estimated 200,000 children a year are sold from West and Central Africa to be domestic, agricultural, and sex slaves in neighboring countries. The International Labor Rights and Education Fund works to rescue some of the hundreds of thousands of kidnapped children in India locked rooms forced to weave carpets. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has worked to free some of the thousands in southern Singh held in leg-irons due to unpaid debt and forced to harvest cane. Accounts persist of young girls in Thailand sold into prostitution and slave chattels in Mauritania. Twice as many women were sold in the Arab Muslim slave trade than men. "Prophet, We have made lawful to you ... the slave girls whom God has given you as booty." (Qur'an 33:50) Both white and black male slaves were often castrated, though black male slaves suffered more, being cut "level with the abdomen," resulting in high mortality rates. The Arabic word "Abd" or "Abeed" is the name used for both "African" and "slave." Generational indebtedness in India sees rural peasants born in debt, live in debt and die in debt. The Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy heard

I have a friend who makes his living selling items at flea-markets, fairs and festivals. He always says to me, "Creek, I make my living with the smalls. " He makes the majority of his money selling the $1 and $2 items - not the $100 big-ticket items. Of course it's great to sell a big-ticket item every now and then, but if he depended on big-ticket sales to pay the bills, he'd be out of business. The same is true with survival hunting. It's all about the smalls - the little critters like fish, frogs, snakes, crayfish, crabs, rabbit, lizards, squirrel, mice, rat, rodents, bats, birds, turtle, possum and raccoon. It's easy to get caught up in the idea of a large-game hunt with a big fancy hunting weapon, but at the end of the day it just isn't all that practical. Larger game is more dangerous and difficult to hunt and requires more energy to process. In a long-term survival scenario, it is important to understand how to hunt, kill and eat the smalls . When hunting small game, simple is the most efficient strategy. One of the most effective primitive hunting tools I've ever used has been the gig - especially for fish and frogs. gigs are also very easy to use. Don't underestimate the ability of a simple gig to put food on the table. You've probably seen commercial gigs like the one shown at right. They are sold in the fishing section of almost any outdoor retailer. These typically come with a bolt or screw that you use to mount it to the end of a 6-10 foot pole. They are only a f

Saudi Arabia has responded to the criticism levelled against it for not absorbing Arab refugees by offering to build two hundred mosques in Germany. The offer is as gratuitous, as self indulgent and as jarring to German or broader European sensibilities as it is insulting to both refugees and their host societies. In the final analysis, the refugee crisis and hosting these benighted and blighted victims of wars and conflicts is all about values- how states and societies deal with humanitarian disasters and what this reflects about these societies. In this sense, despite the reaction and resistance to the unprecedented refugee flows into European shores, and despite the issues that accepting refugees and immigrants have led to, the West stands out as a beacon of hope, generosity and concern for human rights. Alas, to the contrary, the Muslim world has nothing to show for what is an Islamic ideal: compassion and generosity-ideals that Muslims must demonstrate both in word and deed. The Saudi offer comes in the midst of churn and much soul searching within European societies: this churn and angst pertains to Muslim immigration and immigrants into Europe. For all practical purposes, Muslims in Europe live in isolation from their respective host societies- an existence that can only be called a marginal, marginalized and a ghettoized one. There are multifarious reasons for this in which both host societies, their governments and Muslims are implicated. These reasons need not detai

December 24, 2016 ( LifeSiteNews ) - One night each week, I forget about work and all the stresses of modern life during a quiet, humble Low Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. This is the ancient rite of the Mass that was used before Vatican II. Today, it's considered by the Church to enjoy equal dignity with the Ordinary Form of the Mass ("English Mass" or Mass that uses exclusively or mostly the vernacular, with different rubrics and prayers). I'm blessed to attend a parish that offers Mass in both forms, with holy priests who love Jesus and are devoted to glorifying Him and Him alone in the liturgy. There's rarely a homily at this Mass. Many of the priest's prayers are barely audible. The congregation silently reads the prayers as the priest whispers them. There are a lot of people under 30 and over 60. There's definitely a crowd of "regulars." There are usually just two altar boys. It's during the quietest moments during these most quiet of Masses, when everyone's eyes are transfixed on the crucifix with the priest, that I can best focus on God. There are no distractions. It's not about the priest. It's not about what other people are doing or wearing. It's about the word becoming flesh right before our eyes -- the priest turning mere bread and wine into the literal body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus the same way the Holy Spirit allowed the Virgin Mary to conceive a son. During these quiet moments, it's most apparent how unworthy we are of any of it:

Several hundred people gathered in Downtown Memphis Sunday for a Black Lives Matter rally, then marched up a ramp and shut down traffic on the Interstate 40 bridge over the Mississippi River. Traffic was at a standstill on both sides of the bridge by about 7 p.m. as the crowd on the bridge swelled to more than 1,000. I-40 bridge flooded with protesters.>> https://t.co/zqglLVj4xD #wmc5 pic.twitter.com/qLVMOdVVwK -- WMC Action News 5 (@WMCActionNews5) July 11, 2016 The rally began at FedExForum, but after about a half hour, those gathered started marching north on Third Street toward the Pinch District, then made their way to the I-40 bridge from Front Street near the Cook Convention Center. As the marchers walked up the ramp to the bridge, police who had been following and blocking traffic tried to block the marchers' access to the bridge with officers and with cars. Several hundred had already made their way up to the bridge, but police were able to turn the remainder back. https://twitter.com/WMCActionNews5/status/752324118704336896/photo/1 Ultimately, however, the marchers had blocked westbound traffic on the bridge, then spilled over to block the eastbound lanes as the crowd swelled to more than 1,000. Memphis Police deputy director Mike Ryall said the demonstration had been "very peaceful so far. Our main goal here is that no one get hurt. They definitely have a right to voice their opinion. I came through and everyone was polite." Rallings and other officers linked arms

LGBT community members block a highway during a protest against a surrogate bill in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, July 22. Photo: AP/Oded Balilty Thousands of LGBT Israelis and supporters took to the streets July 22 for a one-day strike called by queer movement leaders to protest a new surrogacy law that excludes LGBT people and single men. Israel's Parliament, the Knesset, passed a new amendment July 18 allowing single women and women who are unable to become pregnant for medical reasons to utilize state support for surrogacy, but excluded LGBT people and single men. The law, which was supposed to include LGBT people and single men, outraged the community, prompting protests that filled the streets and Rabin Square and blocked freeways in Tel Aviv. Demonstrators gathered outside of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's house in Jerusalem. "We will not remain silent," chanted Eyal Lurie Pardes, a protester draped in a rainbow flag, reported ABC News. "Look me in the eyes and tell me I don't deserve to be a father." He was later seen on Israeli TV being pushed into a police car. Two people were arrested at the protest and later released. Netanyahu previously supported the bill including LGBT and single men, but he was deterred by conservative Jews, allowing the bill to pass without those additions. "It's a really disappointing outcome, but not entirely unexpected," said Ty Gregory, executive director of A Wider Bridge, a New York-based LGBT Jewish organization that promotes suppor

Dr. Oliver Sacks, the British writer, neurologist, and adventurer of the mind who investigated the brain's oddities and turned them into compelling, understandable studies in best-selling books, has died, according to reports . His longtime personal assistant told The New York Times that he succumbed to cancer Sunday at his home in New York City. Sacks had disclosed earlier this year , in a Times op-ed, that he had been diagnosed with a terminal bout of the disease; as he did throughout his nearly five-decade writing career, he took the opportunity to wax poetically on the beauty of life and to ruminate about the human condition--for he was preparing for its final act. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below "I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written," he wrote . "I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers." A doctor's writer as well as a writer's writer, Sacks, dubbed "the poet laureate of medicine," was best known for his neurological case histories, which include The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat and Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain . He also wrote Awakenings , a book that focused on patients who had survived the 20th century's encephalitis lethargica epidemic, and that was later turned into a Harold Pinter play and an Academy Awa

President Donald Trump was not my first choice as president since he is a very flawed person in many ways; however, he was far superior to the other choice so I voted for him knowing I would often disagree. While I approve of many of his decisions, I have been embarrassed by his crude, rude, and lewd talk and actions. Moreover, I wish he would stop telling people that he is a Christian. Christians are not perfect people but we are supposed to be changed people. The followers of Christ in Antioch (Turkey) were first called Christians because they reminded people of Christ. In essence, they were "little Christs" not in the sense of any kind of divinity but in the way they lived, spoke, and treated others, especially the poor, elderly and outcast. This week President Trump embarrassed himself, his family, and the nation when he reportedly used a vulgar word in conversation with other politicians in the Oval Office. While his emphatic decision to correct the flawed immigration policy and his desire to "put America first" are sane positions, they do not justify his potty-mouth talk. Furthermore, his opponents are accusing him of racism because he suggested that new immigrants should come from Norway rather than Nigeria. No sane person can deny that people from Norway would more easily acclimate to the United States than the backward nations of Nigeria and Haiti. In our non-thinking society, I suppose my making that obviously true statement makes me a racist! Only Trump knows what

Bewailing America's decline has been in vogue for quite a while now. Long gone is the confidence we enjoyed as the world's only superpower after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The terrorist attacks of 9/11, the long, difficult wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Great Recession of 2008, and its ongoing geopolitical and economic aftermath have left a dark cloud of pessimism hanging over our future. Books like Pat Buchanan's Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025? and Mark Steyn's After America: Get Ready for Armageddon warn of our accelerating decline caused by a collapse of ethnic identity or by an economic meltdown fueled by excessive debt and government spending. The "antideclinists" have not been silent in response. Most recently, Robert Kagan has argued in The World America Made that our country's still overwhelming military, economic, cultural, and demographic advantages mean that it will continue to dominate the global order for decades to come. As Kagan reminds us, we have faced numerous crises in the past, many of them much more serious than the problems we face today, and yet we have grown more powerful nonetheless. Illustration by Barbara Kelley How many people in the depths of the Carter-era's "crisis of confidence," Soviet geopolitical aggression, and "stagflation" imagined that within a decade , our most deadly and powerful ideological and military rival would disappear from history, and in the next three decades our economy would expand at a

Following the snap reshuffle of the French cabinet earlier this week, the new French government, dubbed Valls II, held its first ministerial meeting on Wednesday morning after French President Francois Hollande named the new cabinet members. The new cabinet formation shows that only loyal supporters of Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls' government were promoted in order to secure the majority in the new cabinet while ejecting dissident voices. This shows that Valls II has been formed in line with President Hollande's "direction." After the names were read out on the steps of Elysee Palace, the rebellious left-wing of the Socialist government was replaced by existing ministers loyal to the centrist line. Emmanuel Macron, Hollande's top economic adviser, was appointed as new economy minister. Two other ministers, Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti and Education Minister Benoit Hamon, who harshly criticized the government's economic policies over the weekend, were cast aside. Hollande appointed the most senior ministers, Manuel Valls as prime minister and his lifelong friend Michel Sapin as finance minister. Hollande's former coalition partners, the left-wing Greens, do not have a role in the new cabinet. Valls defended the economic policies his government put in place, saying that a change in the future direction of the economy is "out of the question" while describing the call for another strategy as "irresponsible." Amid the mounting political and economic pressure on

The 11th Iranian Film Festival in San Francisco, the 3rd edition of Slemani International Film Festival in Iraq, 2018 Revolution Me Film Festival in New York City and Alexandre Trauner Art/Film Festival in Hungary are four events that will screen Iranian short movie 'Alphabet'. The 6-minute animated piece narrates the story of people who have forgotten life and are separated from knowledge and truth. The animation depicts a nation that has forgotten the alphabet to life, cannot see, cannot hear, and cannot speak, but the words are waiting for them impatiently. 'Alphabet' has so far joined some international film events, winning a number of awards, including the best short film award at the 5th Sayulita Film Festival in Mexico, the Best Experimental and Animation award at the 6th Speechless Film Festival as well as the 15th Southside Film Festival in the US, and the 5th edition of Tripoli Film Festival in Lebanon.

Saturday's AM Joy on MSNBC displayed how the Left can interpret racism or racial insensitivity into anything as host Joy Reid not only mocked President Donald Trump's words of praise for iconic anti-slavery activist Frederick Douglass, but even treated it as somehow inappropriate for Vice President Mike Pence to send out a tweet on February 1 commemorating President Abraham Lincoln signing onto the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery. A bit later, MSNBC contributor Toure Neblett comically lauded Chicago's high murder rate as a "massive success story" because the crime problem in the city used to be worse. At 11:37 a.m. ET, returning from a commercial break, there was a clip of President Trump: "Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who has done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I notice." Reid then moved to mock the President for how he worded his remarks: "Now, for the record, Frederick Douglass died in 1895, and was so widely recognized before his death that, according to one historian, he was actually the most photographed man of his time." <<< Please support MRC's NewsBusters team with a tax-deductible contribution today. >>> After displaying on screen a tweet from Vice President Pence commemorating the day Lincoln signed onto the Thirteenth Amendment, Reid took aim at him as she snarked: "And no, no, no, no, no, no, Mike Pence. Abraham Lincoln has Presidents Day. You can try again next year." Her comments mirror some on the left who have sh

Sherri Shepherd, of "The World is Flat" fame, has sunk to a new low with special guest D.L. Hughley attempting to school everyone that "down low," or secretly bisexual, black men are responsible for the increase in HIV / AIDS transmission rates among African American women. The CDC says that's bull. In fact, the cause is promiscuous straight men who use drugs. But why let facts get in the way of some good old homophobia. http://www.hulu.com/embed/ycYMvAf2YMm_xxn2BFa5TA One of the most attractive men, gay or not, in television, Thomas Roberts, was also guest on "The View" and said some interesting things about internalized homophobia, but the shameful remarks were reserved for Hughley because of his ignorant claim that political correctness shouldn't supersede medical decisions to protect the public. No, the real crime is when fear, racism, homophobia, ignorance and propaganda supersede actual medical facts and policies, D.L. and Ms. Shepherd! An educated doctor, Dr. Kevin Fenton, from the CDC attempts to educate the public with an article dismissing the dangerous falsehoods. ATLANTA (NNPA) - Despite all the talk about "Down Low" Black men - who have sex with women while secretly having intercourse with other men - the major cause of the extremely high HIV/AIDS rates among African-American women is being fueled by heterosexual Black men with multiple sex partners, a top federal official says. In an interview with the NNPA News Service, Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the Centers

A new abortion crisis is coming to Ontario, and it is through the funding of the new abortion pill "Mifegymiso", otherwise known as RU-486. The Liberal party of Ontario has promised to make this pill available for free to all women with a doctor's prescription as of August 10th,2017. This combination consists of two pills. The first is called Mifepristone. This blocks progesterone, starving the baby to death in utero. The second pill is known as Misoprostol. This is taken anytime 24 to 48 hours after the first pill is taken. This induces hemorrhaging which expels the dead baby's body. It is unbelievable to see that government leaders are calling this policy a win for human and women's rights. They explain that funding this drug equates to more privacy, no financial barriers and less invasive surgery. However, they seemed to have undermined one minor detail... That this pill has been costing women their lives, as over a dozen cases of death have been directly linked to the use of the RU-486 pill, and several more internationally. This leaves me to wonder, if this is killing women, is it really a step towards women's rights? This kills preborn humans. Is it a step forward in human rights? As of now, there are no signs that provinces who have not yet funded Mifegymiso won't do so in the near future, as Ontario and four other provinces have already jumped on the bandwagon. There are obvious moral reasons as to why RU-486 is not right (it kills children before birth, and that it c

While there are headphones specially meant for music and movie enthusiasts, gamers often look for more than just performance. Features is one of those things and style is the other. An equally fancy carry case for the Vulcan ANC headphones ASUS' Republic of Gamers series of hardware components span across several categories. Their recently launched Vulcan ANC is designed for gamers who would like some noise cancellation ability in their headphones. Design and build quality Unlike most headphones in the market, the ASUS Vulcan comes in a fancy, but sturdy pouch. The pouch is hard and should protect the headphones from damage while travelling. There's even a small gap made for the bundled microphone. Detachable cable that connects the headphones to the source The headphones are slightly bulky. The earphone area itself is small, but the clamp holding the speakers in place are larger. The band used is made of plastic, but it's been reinforced with metal. There's also a hinge that lets you fold the headphones tight. This makes it easier to carry them with you in the bundled pouch or a bag. The headphones are made out of good quality plastic. The patch that makes contact with the top of your head has a thick foam padding wrapped in a synthetic material and makes wearing the Vulcan comfortable. The surface on the insides of the headphones are covered with cloth while the cushions covering the ear are lined with the same texture as the top band. The cushions make wearing the headpho

Like this article? rabble is reader-supported journalism. Chip in to keep stories like these coming. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had a full slate of climate talks this week, including an announcement committing to two significant funding initiatives promoting climate resilience. The first was a $75 million allotment to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to support local governments in reducing emissions, while the second was a $50 million investment in improving climate resilient building and infrastructure codes across Canada. First Nations leaders face minimal inclusion Following this announcement on Wednesday, Trudeau and the provincial and territorial premiers met with First Nations leaders to discuss how they can work together to address climate change -- a partnership that Indigenous leaders strongly called for. "Indigenous Peoples are uniquely positioned to address climate change. We are observing and experiencing firsthand, on the ground, the devastating impacts of climate change," said the First Nations Leadership Council in a statement. "We have many thousands of years of traditional knowledge about our territories and bring to the table important, relevant and unique perspectives on how the environment is changing, the causes of this change, and solutions for addressing impacts and restoring habitat." In spite of these significant perspectives, some Indigenous groups were left without an invitation to the discussion including the Native Women's Association

How much did Justin Trudeau's trip to India cost? Well, that's the crazy thing. The bills are in -- partial bills, more are yet to come -- and it's over $1.5 million. But not a peep about it in the any English language media. The Quebecor newspaper Journal de Montreal published a story on it today. It wasn't a scoop, or even revealed by an Access to Information document. It was an order paper question in Parliament. But every single media outlet in English Canada -- including, of course, the CBC -- simply declined to do a story about the cost of the greatest wreck of Trudeau's prime ministership so far. (By the way, The Rebel submitted an Access to Information request about all of Trudeau's costumes. But the government says they won't answer that question in the 30 days required by law. They want a 300-day extension -- they won't answer until 2019 -- because they say telling us how much they spent on costumes for his dress-up party would disrupt their operations...) Tonight I'll read you excerpts from the Journal de Montreal story, like this one: "During the nine-day stay last February, the government paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for the rental of rooms and meeting rooms in hotels, nearly $60,000 for chauffeur-driven car rentals, and even $17,000 for a Canadian chef's trip to India to prepare a meal at a party." Because I guess India doesn't know how to make Indian food... (I've got an idea for Canada's wounded military vets. They should re-train as Indian chefs. May

CHQ Staff| 3/2/2015 A few days ago our friend Tony Lee over at Breitbart noted that "Pro-amnesty, Pro-gay marriage, and pro-abortion donors are powering former Florida Governor Jeb Bush's fundraising operation." Yet this year's CPAC didn't give a whole lot of indication that all that money and those positions on the issues were going to propel Jeb Bush to the Republican nomination for President - indeed quite the opposite. Forget the money and the name for a second - the top potential presidential candidates repeatedly criticized GOP leadership on Capitol Hill for the way the immigration fight with Mr. Obama has gone, and the activists at CPAC on Saturday booed when former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's name was read as fifth place in the straw poll. ( Here's a link to the complete results courtesy of The Washington Times ) Fifth place. Bush says he opposes Mr. Obama's unilateral grant of amnesty to illegal immigrants, but also says the country must legalize those illegal immigrants at some point anyway -- a stance that meets with resistance among conservatives, who generally want to see them either deported or given some status shy of citizenship. And that's the key that Jeb Bush's establishment Republican moneymen and backers just can't get through their arrogant skulls - that the Americans who are going to decide this election are looking for Republicans to accomplish results on the conservative agenda, not sing Kumbaya with the Democrats. And Bush's fifth-place showing was despi

"Trudeau vowed during the campaign that one of his first priorities would be to end the RCAF commitment in the allied air compaign against [for!] ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Of course Trudeau did not specify an exact date as to when the RCAF contingent will pack up and fly home from Kuwait. Some have speculated that in order to appease Obama, Canada might keep our six-pack of CF-18 fighters in the Middle East until the one-year Parliament-approved mission expires in April As a sop to the Americans, Trudeau has also promised to keep Canada in the fight against ISIS, albeit in a different capacity than simply launching combat air-strikes. During the campaign the Liberals also vowed to cancel Canada's participation in the purchase of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Trudeau stated categorically that, if elected, the Liberals would take this off the menu and seek a cheaper replacement aircraft for the CF-18 fleet. For the new Liberal government, opting out of the fighter program for the sake of appeasing the electorate could have international repercussions of substantial consequence..." NDPP wrote: Any presence of CF in Iraq or Syria without the express permission of their governments constitutes serious violations of international law. The cavalier manner in which this has been ignored along with the monstrous consquences of our involvement thus far in the deliberate destabilization and destruction of these sovereign states should be a matter of great concern to all. Unfortunately m

T here will come a time when our nation can fairly evaluate George W. Bush's strategy and record in fighting terrorism. Perhaps that time can start now. A new book by James Mitchell , a man who questioned 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed contains an extraordinary revelation. It turns out that those who believe that al-Qaeda attacked the U.S. in order to draw us into an Afghan quagmire are wrong. Terrorists attacked America expecting that we'd respond as we traditionally had, by treating terrorism primarily as a law-enforcement problem, with the military response limited to cruise-missile attacks like Bill Clinton's ineffective 1998 strikes in response to the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Instead, Bush chose a different course. Writing in the Washington Post , Marc Thiessen quotes from Mitchell's account : "Then he [KSM] looked at me and said, 'How was I supposed to know that cowboy George Bush would announce he wanted us 'dead or alive' and then invade Afghanistan to hunt us down?'" Mitchell writes. "KSM explained that if the United States had treated 9/11 like a law-enforcement matter, he would have had time to launch a second wave of attacks." He was not able to do so because al-Qaeda was stunned "by the ferocity and swiftness of George W. Bush's response." Americans often ascribe superhuman levels of endurance and perseverance to our terrorist enemies. We believe terrorists scoff at losses and feel no fear. We think they relish dying, and the more they die,

A crocodile attack has taken place in Australia, with reports describing that a 26 year old man was grabbed by a crocodile in front of more than a dozen terrified onlookers. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Laubarr) A crocodile is shown here in this file photo. The incident is reported to have happened in Australia's Northern Territory. The victim is said to have been swimming in a river when he was grabbed by the crocodile. Officials from the region have not publicly identified the name in the immediate aftermath of the attack, but they have said that the man is believed to have ignored signs telling people to stay away from the water. The victim is believed to have wandered into the waters at a popular camping ground at Mary River Park, which is about 65 miles (100 km) from the state capital, Darwin. The victim was apparently part of a crowd who were there celebrating a birthday. However, tragedy struck when the man was grabbed by a 5m long crocodile in front of horrified onlookers. The river is well-known in the region for being populated with many crocodiles. Despite warnings being placed prominently throughout the area to stay away from the river, officials have said that the victim and another man had ignored the warnings and gone swimming across the river. They had apparently reached the other side and were swimming on their way back when the victim was grabbed by the large crocodile. Senior Sergeant Geoff Bahnert from the Northern Territory Police Force has said, "Several of

Dick Netzer is a professor of economics and public administration at New York University's Robert F. Wagner School of Public Administration. Aaron Wildavsky once summed up New York's transportation situation in a single pithy remark: "The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway," he exclaimed, "is un-American." Wildavsky was talking about a limited-access highway that has been built and rebuilt to engineering standards far below those used for nearly all expressways in the rest of the country. The BQE has too few lanes, dangerous and traffic- obstructing entrance and exit ramps, and no shoulders. Moreover, it is indifferently maintained so that, within months, newly rebuilt sections as well as the old ones are pocked with potholes, and refuse is everywhere. The smallest mishap can cause spectacular jams at any time of day. The BQE is a good example of all that is wrong with transportation in New York. Of course there is much that is right with it. In some ways, compared with other American cities, New York City's transportation network is unparalleled, particularly in the breadth of its public transit system. Unlike a good many other American cities, New York has a dense network of for-hire passenger transportation services, such as buses, subways, and taxis. It also has the customary grid of limited-access highways. Nearly everyone can travel from any point within the city to any other point swiftly enough to hold down a job, keep health care appointments, get to school, and conduct othe

Jonathan Tobin : Defending the Right to a Jewish State Carolyn Bigda : 8 Best Dividend Stocks for 2015 Kiplinger's Personal Finance editors : 7 Things You Didn't Know About Paying Off Student Loans Samantha Olson : The Crucial Mistake 55% Of Parents Are Making At Their Baby's Bedtime Densie Well, Ph.D., R.D. Open your eyes to yellow vegetables The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon With its colorful cache of purples and oranges and reds, COLLARD GREEN SLAW is a marvelous mood booster --- not to mention just downright delish April 18, 2014 Rabbi Yonason Goldson : Clarifying one of the greatest philosophical conundrums in theology Caroline B. Glick : The disappearance of US will Megan Wallgren : 10 things I've learned from my teenagers John Ericson : Trying hard to be 'positive' but never succeeding? Blame Your Brain The Kosher Gourmet by Julie Rothman Almondy, flourless torta del re (Italian king's cake), has royal roots, is simple to make, . . . but devour it because it's simply delicious Rabbi Dr Naftali Brawer : Passover frees us from the tyranny of time Greg Crosby : Passing Over Religion Eric Schulzke : First degree: How America really recovered from a murder epidemic Georgia Lee : When love is not enough: Teaching your kids about the realities of adult relationships Cameron Huddleston : Freebies for Your Lawn and Garden Gordon Pape : How you can tell if your financial adviser is setting you up for potential ruin Dana Dovey : Up to 500,000 people die each year from hepatitis

Liberals and the lying, leftist press want to force Donald Trump's presidency into failure, but they ignore the fact that a failure for his new administration would be a failure for America. When one thinks back to Barack Obama's election to the Oval Office, conservatives feared that his proclaimed "Fundamental Transformation of America" meant doom for America as he attempted to bury our constitution under a mound of liberal causes, but they didn't start investigating him for various and sundry imagined acts as soon as he took office. Instead conservatives expressed their reservations and waited to see what Obama would do, hoping that their fear of him was unfounded. But as it turned out, Obama's every decision, from a treaty with Iran, to LGBT bathrooms, to a no-big-deal IRS scandal, to opening our borders to every person who wants in, to masses of idiotic and illegal EPA regulations, to unconstitutionally taking healthcare away from Americans and nationalizing it, to establishing sanctuary cities that would protect illegal and criminal aliens from the law, were all indeed intended to "fundamentally transform America" so it would be more third-worldly, less free and less affluent. But liberal Democrats will not give Trump time to get his feet on the ground before they try to eliminate his presidency, and in particular they want his administration wounded politically before he gets his Supreme Court nominee approved and seated, and before he is successful at keeping sworn ter

Bill Nye's "My Sex Junk" song had disgusted most viewers, but despite it being so universally disliked, an Emmy Award nomination for Nye's Netflix "Sexual Spectrum" episode was announced on Thursday. The Television Academy Awards nominated writers of the Nye episode for a musical number suggesting that sexuality is no longer either male or female. The episode was met with disbelief from conservatives and YouTube viewers alike, many of whom mocked the show for presenting sexual deviancy as physical science. Nye is known as "the science guy" in the United States, but recently The New American described Nye as "an aging social justice warrior (SJW) and wannabe hipster with a messianic complex who is peddling an authoritarian ideology/religion under a camouflage of pseudoscience". The nominated episode features the music video, "My Sex Junk," which was published on YouTube and aired in April on Netflix, with actress Rachel Bloom singing a song about transgenders, gay sex and how sexuality is a "fluid concept". In episode nine an initial trio sings an ode to anal sex and transgenderism, with lyrics such as "Versatile love may have some butt stuff / It's evolution, ain't nothing new / There's nothing taboo about a sex stew". Scientifically however such notions are shaky at best: Good luck explaining homosexuality in Darwinian terms. Bloom laments the fact that humans are living as either male or females. "Sexuality's a spectrum, everyone is on it. Even you might like it if you sit

At a recent meeting of the Orange County St. Thomas More Society we were fortunate enough to have Father Robert Spitzer, SJ present a his new book 10 Universal Principles: A Brief Philosophy Of Life Issues. You might remember Father Spitzer as the Jesuit Priest who defended God's existence against physicist Stephen Hawking's belief that God isn't the creator of the universe on CNN's "Larry King Live." I've been fortunate enough to hear many talks from Father Spitzer, including dozens of riveting homilies from the pulpit. He is a brilliant and holy man. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCoTGTRfDy0 His conversation at the latest Thomas Moore gathering centered around his efforts to challenge young people (he's primarily an educator) to recognize certain universally held principles when addressing the notion of when life begins in connection with the morality and legality of abortion. If this summary seems incomplete, that's my fault. I have no philosophy background and I'm taking notes best I can. Spitzer uses no notes as he excitedly takes us through his new theory. I encourage you to get his book to fill in the gaps. Fr. Spitzer points out that the abortion issue has historically been argued with the same false reasoning that supported such historical follies as the subjugation of Native Americans as inferiors and the Dred Scott decision. In those areas, available scientific data could not prove that Native Americans or Africans were not inferior so courts and governments decla

He must have a really nice living quarters under a rock. Via Raw Story : Many believe that poor people deserve to be poor because they're lazy. As Speaker John Boehner has said, the poor have a notion that "I really don't have to work. I don't really want to do this. I think I'd rather just sit around." In reality, a large and growing share of the nation's poor work full time -- sometimes sixty or more hours a week - yet still don't earn enough to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. It's also commonly believed, especially among Republicans, that the rich deserve their wealth because they work harder than others. In reality, a large and growing portion of the super-rich have never broken a sweat. Their wealth has been handed to them. The rise of these two groups -- the working poor and non-working rich - is relatively new. Both are challenging the core American assumptions that people are paid what they're worth, and work is justly rewarded. Why are these two groups growing? The ranks of the working poor are growing because wages at the bottom have dropped, adjusted for inflation. With increasing numbers of Americans taking low-paying jobs in retail sales, restaurants, hotels, hospitals, childcare, elder care, and other personal services, the pay of the bottom fifth is falling closer to the minimum wage. At the same time, the real value of the federal minimum wage is lower today than it was a quarter century ago. In addition, most recipients of public assistance

This won't be about Bernie Sanders, per se. Bernie Sanders seems to be positioning himself to do the right thing in the coming weeks. What this means is that it's time to strike a conciliatory tone in the name of forging a unified front of decent Americans aimed at ensuring that Donald Trump and the morally bankrupt party sanctioning his quest for the White House do not succeed. No, this will be about what it's been about almost since the beginning of Sanders's improbable rise: his rabid disciples. Specifically, his supposed army of youthful revolutionaries; the political neophytes who formed a cult of personality around Sanders knowing little about how politics actually work; the people who still threaten to "burn it all down" because they didn't get their way; the meme-warriors who've spent the past 48 hours lashing out at those who've endorsed Hillary Clinton, including their former progressive hero Elizabeth Warren; the kids who insist their lack of presence in the general election, the result of their candidate not winning, will doom any Democratic effort. There are two articles circulating right now that speak volumes about the Democratic primary race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in California and beyond. One in particular offers probably the most predictable and revealing bit of information to come out of the whole protracted contest. It's a piece in the San Francisco Chronicle that details all the ways that, despite their deafening roar both online a

An Israeli military official has spoken about the challenges will face their armed forces stressing that in the coming years, there will be an increase in the numbers of Israelis not serving in the army. Earlier media reports have revealed the concerns of military officials over the possibility of facing shortages in the number of individuals who will serve in the Israeli army in the future. The outgoing IDF Personnel Branch Chief, Major General Avi Zamir, stated that less than 50% of Israelis of military service age (18 to 45) are in the army's order of battle, and no more than 20% are on reserve duty. Zamir spoke at the Caesarea Economic Policy Planning Forum of the Israel Democracy Institute on Sunday, June 19. He presented statistics on the IDF and addressed the 'people's army' model of military service that depends on compulsory recruitment, with the rest of citizens on reserve duty; this model is considered by Israeli experts to be more suitable from an economic perspective. According to Israeli media, Zamir is concerned that the make-up of the IDF's reserves is changing due to a number of demographic factors. Conservative Jews belonging to the Haredi sector will constitute around 30% of first-grade soldiers in 2015, although 13% of military age men avoid military service because they are Haredi. According to Israeli media outlets, Zamir also noted that in 2015, 29% of military age citizens will be 1948 Arabs, who do not serve in the Israeli army; 5% will be abroad an

T he United States has two major political parties, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, which nominate their candidates after a series of popular votes, called primaries or caucuses. The primaries and caucuses across the country's 50 states starts in the Midwestern state of Iowa and the New England state of New Hampshire in early February and they continue throughout the first half of the year ending in June for both parties. Candidates collect delegates at those primaries and caucuses who will represent them in the Democrats' DNC and the Republicans' RNC conventions in the summer. To win the Republican nomination, a candidate needs 1,236 delegates. To win the Democratic nomination, a candidate needs 2,383 delegates. Democrats have a much bigger convention with 4,483 delegates to the Republicans 2,470. Once a winner has emerged from each party, that candidate is officially nominated at national party conventions in the summer-just a few months before the general elections in November. The Democratic Party's superdelegates system emerged as the biggest controversy this primary. The Democratic party has more than 700 superdelegates, who are party leaders and elected officials not formally bound to any candidate. More than 540 superdelegates pledged support for Hillary Clinton and many of them did so even before she had formally announced her campaign in April last year. Therefore, despite winning many of the primaries and caucuses, Sanders has mediated a significant

Photo: JIM LO SCALZO/Corbis One of the more inscrutable steps we in Washington must go through on our way to some kind of budget agreement is the ceremonial sacrifice of Grover Norquist. The head of Americans for Tax Reform, Norquist has come to occupy a wildly disproportionate place in the national conversation, mainly through his role as keeper of the GOP 's anti-tax pledge -- or, as Norquist and many Republicans call it, the Pledge. The Pledge, which no Republican at the national level has violated for more than two decades, forbids its signers from voting to increase tax revenue in any form (except as the ethereal byproduct of growth via lower taxes). Over the weekend, several Republicans on Sunday morning talk shows distanced themselves from and even mocked Norquist. Today, National Review editor Rich Lowry and The Wall Street Journal editorial page rise to Norquist's defense. Norquist is a key figure in the conservative movement, chairing regular weekly meetings at which conservative congressional staffers, lobbyists, activists, and opinion journalists from organizations like National Review and The Wall Street Journal editorial page coordinate a party line. The Pledge itself is merely a ratification of the Republican Party's decision to organize itself around the principle of opposing taxes above all else. Norquist's allies are rallying to his defense mainly as an expression of tribal solidarity among conservative movement allies. The problem for all of them is tha

BY: Stephen Gutowski Follow @@StephenGutowski April 21, 2016 5:18 pm Three major cities accounted for more than half of the rise in the national murder rate between 2014 and 2015, a new report shows. Though overall crime rates were stagnant in America's 30 largest cities the murder rate rose 13.3 percent, according to a report from the Brennan Center for Justice. The violent crime rate also rose by 3.1% in those major cities, lead by increases in Los Angeles, Baltimore, and Charlotte. Three cities were also mainly responsible for the rise in murders. "Final data confirm that three cities (Baltimore, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.) account for more than half (244) of the national increase in murders," the report said. "Final data confirm that three cities (Baltimore, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.) account for more than half (244) of the national increase in murders," the report said. The researchers cautioned that the increase in the murder rate was not necessarily a sign of a further increase in violent crime. "While this suggests cause for concern in some cities, murder rates vary widely from year to year, and there is little evidence of a national coming wave in violent crime," the study said. "These serious increases seem to be localized, rather than part of a national pandemic, suggesting that community conditions remain the major factor. Notably, these three cities all seem to have falling populations, higher poverty rates, and higher unemployment than the national avera

On Tuesday night, TeamDC, Washington's LGBT sports team organization and scholarship fund, held their annual Nationals Night Out, annually the largest LGBT night in American sports. More than 3,300 group tickets were sold to fans eager to see two of the National League's top teams and cap off a week of Pride celebrations throughout the District. As in years past, the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington was set to sing the National Anthem. Actor Leslie Jordan, best known for his role as Beverley Leslie on Will and Grace , would throw the first pitch and Bishop Gene Robinson would deliver the lineup card. A D.J. would spin dance tracks by the scoreboard walk bar before the game. But everything changed on Sunday. Forty-nine innocent people were massacred in the Orlando gay club Pulse. It was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, and we, the LGBT community, were the target. So this year's Night Out took on a much deeper meaning. In the hours following the news of the Pulse attacks, TeamDC representatives were in frequent contact with Washington Nationals staff, seeking to amend the planned program to include a fitting tribute to the lives lost in Orlando. The Gay Men's Chorus of Washington added their rendition of Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors" to the program, while a huge rainbow flag was unfurled on the field, held by 15 members of D.C.'s LGBT sports community. The Nationals flew a second rainbow flag beneath the D.C. flag on the left field concourse, and all flags were flown a

T he two great passions of Jean Chretien's life-- la belle province and sa belle --intersected for a brief, poignant moment at a recent amateur variety show for senior citizens in Trois-Rivieres. Overcoming her innate bashfulness, Chretien's wife of forty-six years, Aline, had agreed to put in a surprise appearance at the popular annual event. She was to play three pieces on the piano, an instrument she took up only as an adult. "She didn't sleep for three days before," Chretien tells me a few days after his wife's September 14 public debut. For Chretien, of course, after forty-one years in national politics, the last ten on centre stage, being under public scrutiny is old hat. But, for his wife, who has always shunned the limelight, it was nerve-wracking. As she anxiously waited her turn backstage, a fellow performer began commiserating with her. "He was very nervous," Chretien explained. "My wife was nervous too, obviously, and he was offering cognac to my wife. He was drinking cognac so he was a bit high, and he didn't know she was my wife. So, after it was all over, he was talking with great familiarity with Aline, and his wife arrives and says, 'Do you know who this is?'" Informed that he'd been chattering casually to the wife of the prime minister, the man turned and blurted, "Oh, Aline, I'm a separatist, but I love you anyway." It was a seemingly banal occurrence but one steeped in significance for a man who, for years, has been demonized by the sovereignist elites in

Ashley Williams YouTube Screenshot We have all seen the video of the young black woman who was escorted from a private $500-a-plate Hillary Clinton fundraiser in South Carolina Wednesday. Ashley Williams, who stood up and confronted the leading Democratic candidate with a sign containing the words from a 1996 speech supporting the now-debunked theory of "superpredators," stood up and said, "I'm not a superpredator, Hillary Clinton." Williams then asked Clinton to explain the words on the sign that read, "We have to bring them to heel." Clinton, who was visibly annoyed at the interruption, snapped, "You know what? Nobody's ever asked me before. You're the first person to do that, and I'm happy to address it." But alas, she did not, and Williams was summarily escorted out. The young activist uploaded a video outside a South Carolina restaurant the next day and spoke passionately about her actions, beginning, "My name is Ashley and I shut down a private Hillary Clinton fundraiser last night ... and one of the reasons I did that was because I really wanted Hillary Clinton to be confronted by her own words ... " "She said that 'We need to bring them to heel,'" continued Williams, referring to a 1996 quote by the then-first lady : "They are often the kinds of kids that are called 'superpredators'--no conscience, no empathy. We can talk about why they ended up that way, but first we have to bring them to heel." "In this quote she is pathologizing and demonizing and also criminalizi

Contributor | Pure Flix February 10, 2017 Despite a 2015 Supreme Court case that legalized gay marriage across the U.S., the theological and moral elements surrounding same-sex nuptials -- and associated religious freedom concerns -- continue to be an area of intense debate. And a new polling analysis from PRRI provides some deep insights into where Americans stand on allowing gay couples to wed, with 58 percent saying they favor "allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry legally." An additional 32 percent said they oppose the measure, with 10 percent either refusing to answer or saying they don't know. But the proportions get a bit more intriguing when researchers break down where religious people stand. And, according to the results, the group most likely to favor gay marriage are Unitarian/Universalists, with 94 percent supporting gay nuptials. The three faith groups least likely to support gay nuptials were Jehovah's Witnesses (25 percent), white evangelical Protestants (31 percent) and Mormons (37 percent). You can see the complete breakdown below, including Catholics, Hindus, Muslims, Jews and other religious cohorts: The same survey, which was based on 40,509 interviews conducted throughout 2016, also asked respondents about whether businesses should be legally permitted to engage in service-based refusals if they feel providing certain products or services would in some way impede their faith. PRRI asked, "Do you favor or oppose allowing a small business owner in your

Environmental issues were discussed in detail at a recent Democratic debate, held in in Flint Michigan on March 6. Sadly, when asked whether the candidates support hydraulic fracturing, also known as "fracking," a technique that has greatly increased oil and natural gas production in the United States, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and current U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) showed they are both fracking clueless. Fracking has nearly doubled the amount of oil produced in the United States since 2008, and it is largely responsible for the dramatic drop in gas prices the country is currently experiencing. It has also made the United States the largest producer of natural gas in the world, which has put thousands of people to work in high-paying jobs over the past decade. Clinton delivered a measured response to the fracking question. She first voiced her modest support for fracking, but she also said she does not support fracking in areas where it is opposed by the local or state government; when methane or other water contamination occurs; and Clinton said she does not support fracking unless drillers are required to disclose the chemicals used in the process. These conditions are not surprising. Even Clinton and Sanders pay lip service to protecting the rights of states and localities--so long as it agrees with their worldview--every once in a while. Clinton's next comments, however, were quite surprising: "By the time we get through all of my conditions, I do not

President-elect Donald Trump received support from the law enforcement community during his 2016 bid for the presidency at all levels -- from local police unions to unions representing federal border agents. Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz. and Sheriff David Clarke of Milwaukee County, Wisc. emerged as surrogates for Trump, as well as effective messengers for the insurgent Republican nominee. The two were regulars on network and cable news, blasting former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton for being more interested in cozying up to Black Lives Matter than respecting law enforcement. The nation's largest police union, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), endorsed Trump in September. The police union represents 330,000 officers across the country, and said Trump "understands and supports our priorities." (RELATED: Nations Largest Police Union Throws Full Endorsement Behind Donald Trump) "Our members believe-we know-that Donald Trump is a proven leader who will make the right decisions for our nation," Chris Canterbury, president of FOP, said in a statement after the election. Trump touted himself as the "law and order" candidate, who would enforce immigration laws and defund sanctuary cities. Police union support for Trump was vocal across the country, with local unions from Ohio to Colorado publicly throwing support behind the candidate. (RELATED: Colorado's Three Largest Police Unions Endorsed Trump) The outrage from groups including the NAACP and Black Lives Ma

Two Spirit - An English term that emerged in 1990 out of the third annual inter-tribal Native American/First Nations gay/lesbian American conference in Winnipeg, describes Indigenous North Americans who fulfill one of many mixed gender roles found traditionally among many Native Americans and Canadian First Nations indigenous groups. Berdache - Until recently, the term berdache was used by (mostly white) anthropologists as a generic term to indicate "two-spirit" individuals; Use of the term has widely been replaced with two-spirit. It is considered by many to be a pejorative. Gender identity - A gender identity is the way in which an individual identifies with a gender category, for example as being either female or male, or in some cases being both or neither. Gender expression - A person's outward presentation of their gender identity. It could range from the highly feminine to the highly masculine - regardless of the individual's biological sex - and can also be a mixture or balance of both, or an expression not directly correlated to either male or female gender. Gender binary - This term is used to express the social and cultural pressures to fall neatly and unambiguously into male or female gender roles and identities. This leaves less room for feminine expression in men and masculine expression in women. Cisgender - The term was coined as an antonym referring to non-transgender people; i.e. those who identify with their gender assigned at birth. The reason f

In the latest bit of unhinged leftist action, Vogue magazine's Instagram account posted a provocative photo of a black mother and her daughter standing underneath a "COLORED ENTRANCE" sign -- a scene from 1954 Mobile, Ala. The message is obvious -- "This is where we're soon headed (again) in Trump's America." The caption reads: "In Trump Time, the clock moves backward. The feeling that time itself is reversing might be the most unsettling aspect of a most unsettling year. What else is Make America Great Again but a promise to re-create the past?" To say this is irresponsible and fully at odds with reality is an understatement. No such evidence exists that suggests Trump fosters even a whit of animosity toward blacks or that his policies would harm the black community (let alone segregate ) it. In fact, to the contrary, under Trump, black unemployment has gone down to its lowest level since before George W. Bush took office, and it is significantly lower than it was during any of the "Hope and Change" years of Obama. And yet, Vogue evades those incontrovertible facts to paint a grotesque falsity of America under Trump where blacks are once again reduced to second-class citizenship. The article accompanying the post is written by a paranoid black anti-Trumper named Brit Bennett, who reduces Trump's victory to "racism" and explains that she was "foolish" to ever think things "would be better" in her lifetime than they were for her mother, who grew up in the deeply segregate

The FBI has abused its ever-widening post-9/11 powers to target immigrants, minorities, and political dissidents through secret surveillance and infiltration programs that trample constitutional rights and run roughshod over principles of fairness and justice, the ACLU finds in a breaking report released Tuesday. Entitled " Unleashed and Unaccountable: The FBI's Unchecked Abuse of Authority (pdf)," this comprehensive report traces the explosion in the FBI's surveillance authority and reach over the past 12 years and tracks systemic violations of First and Fourth Amendment protections. As the NSA spying scandal continues to ricochet across the globe, the study paints an in-depth picture of how a political climate of permissiveness led to FBI abuse and overreach. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attack, Congress--backed by the Department of Justice and the White House--have expanded the Bureau's authority to survey and investigate Americans, invoking the threat of terrorism to pass legislation from the Patriot Act in 2001 to the FISA Amendments Act in 2008. In conjunction with these political developments, the FBI has revised its own internal guidelines and claimed the right, according to the report, to investigate and spy on U.S. people without reasonable suspicion. What have these expanding authorities meant in practice? The report outlines a litany of abuses over the past 12 years, including a racial mapping program, in which FBI officials gathered demographic information on peo

Students are determined to revive their banned union, despite random raids and intimidation, reports Dilnaz Boga . Armed campus police attempt to control unarmed students during a protest. Dilnaz Boga English philosopher, writer and mathematician Bertrand Russell could not have had Srinagar's Kashmir University in mind when he described education as one of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought. But this line pretty much sums up the state of affairs at this academic institution which is supposed to inculcate values of freedom of ideas, speech and expression in young minds. Instead, its actions are counter-productive for its student population, as it busies itself oppressing freedom of choice and intimidating students who wish to voice their opinion and refuse to be manipulated or bow down to authoritarian pressures. All this because the authorities imposed a ban on the students' union in 2009, and some students are working towards reviving it. A nocturnal raid was carried out by 150 police officers from Hazratbal police station on two student hostels last Saturday. The Chief Proctor was present, along with the concerned Station House Officer of the police station and two wardens. The raids lasted from around 7 pm to 9 pm. All the entrances to the campus were sealed, while police cordoned off the hostels and searched every room. 'We have a right to protest against human rights violations in any part of the world. Why do they not want to encourage us to stan

The single currency has been an economic catastrophe for southern Europe. And the erosion of borders and the forced move towards political unity among different nations who still hold to their sense of nationhood - what else was the Euro 2016 tournament a celebration of? - has given rise to populist parties and political instability. The EU could avoid the forthcoming crisis if it weren't beholden to free-market fundamentalists. Italy wants to rescue its banks, but those in Brussels won't allow such 'state interference'. Yet the current Italian banking crisis is only the beginning. Southern Europe's debt is simply unsustainable. Political, economic collapse is indeed ahead, and it's been in gestation in the EU ever since the pan-European ideologues took control in 1992. And when it does come, the EU-philes will of course blame Britain. This week a friend telephoned from Italy, indignant at Britain for seemingly setting in motion a destructive chain of events. He was blaming us already for the EU's collapse. 'No', I replied. Many of us voted to leave the EU because, to us, it is painfully obvious what lies ahead. We wanted to dodge a massive bullet. We didn't vote to leave because we thought a future outside the EU would be flowery meadows and rainbow skies, and rivers made of chocolate. We voted to leave in order to endure tough times this year rather than be involved in terrible times to come. This won't stop the blame eventually being laid at Britain's feet. That's the prob

Safa Daftani stood in a crowd Sunday at the Inner Harbor holding a sign with a flow chart on it. "Are you Black? Muslim? Human?" it read. "Then why aren't you outraged?!!" The 16-year-old high school junior from central New Jersey had traveled to Baltimore with more than 20,000 other Muslims to attend the annual Islamic Circle of North America conference over the weekend. Hundreds of them came to McKeldin Square Sunday to protest the fatal shooting of an unarmed black Muslim man, Stephon Clark, by police in Sacramento, Calif., on March 18. "At the end of the day, it's human dignity," she said. "People are desensitized. They hear 'unarmed black man,' 'unarmed black man.' He was a father, he was a husband, he was a brother. It hits home."[...] Del. Bilal Ali, Baltimore's sole Muslim delegate, took particular issue with White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders' characterization of Clark's shooting as a "local matter" that "should be left up to local authorities." "It's totally insane," Ali said. "This has been a systemic issue since the beginning of people of color touching these shores. We have empirical data that clearly shows that these types of atrocities have been happening to people of color for years." Karim Amin and his wife brought their 9-year-old, Rania, and their 3-year-old, Karim Jr., to the rally. Rania, a fifth-grader, said the event made her feel "like I can do anything." Amin, the head organizer and president of the Muslim Social Services Agency, said

Based on the view of a single economist, ABC portrayed the agreement by world powers, at the G-20 summit in Toronto, to pursue fiscal sanity over the accelerated government spending urged by President Barack Obama, as a threat the well-being of the American people. "President Obama lost an argument today with other world leaders, and some economists say that could plunge the world into a second recession," Dan Harris intoned at the top of Sunday's World News. From Toronto, reporter David Kerley agreed: "The President lost the argument and there could be serious consequences. Some economists are saying what was decided in Toronto today could actually lead to a double-dip recession." A dire Kerley elaborated: "The worry is that by turning off the stimulus spigot the fragile economic recovery could disappear and turn into a double-dip recession." ABC's "some economists" turned out to be a single one, Professor Peter Morici of the University of Maryland , who ominously warned: "It will be very difficult to recover from that. Then we start to get into depression-like conditions." Kerley forecast not following Obama's policies will mean "an unemployment rate that could rise again, this time above ten percent, no recovery in the housing market and an even tighter credit market. And all of this could last another two to three years." From the Sunday, June 27 World News on ABC: DAN HARRIS: Good evening. President Obama lost an argument today with other world leaders, and some economis

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey is among the most popular governors in the country, according to a Thursday poll that surveyed voters in all 50 states. The poll by Morning Consult, which included 253,393 registered voters nationwide from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31, shows 64 percent of Alabama voters approve of the job Ivey is doing as governor -- compared with 15 percent who disapprove. The 49-point spread is third-highest in the country, trailing only Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan. The 15 percent disapproval rating is the lowest among governors, one point better than the share of Massachusetts residents disapproving of Baker. Ivey expressed gratitude at the survey results. "I am absolutely humbled to have such great support from Alabamians," she said in a statement. "It is the greatest privilege of my life to serve as your governor. You all are the reason I serve & I very much look forward to continue serving as your governor." Jess Brown, an emeritus political science professor at Athens State University in northern Alabama, said the poll puts Ivey in a strong position as she prepares to campaign for a full term. "The governor's race as of today is hers to lose," he said. "Are you asking me, can she continue to ride the honeymoon another 90 days to get her through the primary? If she's reasonably cautious and prudent, the answer is yes." Ivey faces a GOP primary in June against at least four challengers -- state Sen. Bill Hightower (R-Mobile), Huntsville

O n March 18, a student in Pine Bush High School near New York City recited the American Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic. This was done as part of the school's Foreign Language Week , which was conducted to celebrate the "many races, cultures and religions that make up [the US and the Pine Bush] School District." One would expect the multicultural and cosmopolitan American society to appreciate such gestures. However, the reactions to the recitation of the Pledge in Arabic spoke otherwise: the language in itself was described to be meant for terrorists, and associated with Islam. Such bigotry once again highlighted everything that is wrong with USA: xenophobia, racism, ignorance, violence and above all, Islamophobia. The Controversy Pine Bush is a small town located roughly 85 miles from New York City. It is predominantly white, with Arab and/or Muslim-American populations being negligible. The Foreign Language Week was an attempt undertaken by Pine Bush High School to foster cultural integration and interaction. It was an occasion to celebrate the multiple tongues, cultures and events that make up the human civilization in total. Sadly, this praiseworthy teaching exercise received nothing but criticism from the American nation. One student claimed , "The Pledge should always be said in English." Also, certain parents were offended because they had "family members killed in Afghanistan." Apparently, they overlooked two basic things: Arabic, as a language, did not kill any of t

Woman convicted of helping husband sexually assault 10-year-old girl By PAT GROSSMITH New Hampshire Union Leader April 07. 2017 10:07PM ROYAL BRADY, left, and KIMBERLY BRADY Woman sentenced for helping husband sexually assault girl Trial begins for woman in molestation of 9-year-old Manchester couple charged in connection with assault on 10-year-old girl MANCHESTER -- A city woman was convicted Friday of being an accomplice with her husband in sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl. A Hillsborough County Superior Court - Northern District jury deliberated for about six hours before returning guilty verdicts against Kimberly Brady, 31, of 27 Columbus St. She was convicted of three counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault, two felony counts of endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor count of endangering the welfare of a child and a violation for not reporting child abuse. "She sacrificed this child to a monster for a year because she was more concerned about her life and her relationship with her husband," First Assistant Hillsborough County Attorney Michael Valentine told the jury in his closing remarks. Her husband, Royal Brady, 32, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault and was sentenced to 27 years in the state prison. Three years can be suspended if he completes the sexual offender treatment program and if he cooperated in the case against his wife, which he did. The assaults began in 2015 but Brady did not report the abuse

Supporting Planned Parenthood is fast becoming the new Republican equivalent of supporting terrorism, and conservative politicians are finding ever more creative ways to prove to their constituents that they want nothing to do with any organization that so much as looks in Planned Parenthood's general direction. Perhaps it should not come as a surprise, then, that one Bob Morris, a state Rep. from Fort Wayne, Indiana, has decided to take a brave stand against one of America's most notoriously evil organizations: the Girl Scouts. He really has gone out of his way to make it known just how much he can't stand this nefarious bunch of macaroni-necklace-making, s'more-eating devil children. Not only did he refuse to sign a House Resolution to recognize the 100th Anniversary of Girl Scouts of America, he sent an open letter to his colleagues detailing all the insane reasons he had for voting against such a criminally bland piece of legislation. Let's take a look at some of what he had to say in his letter, since it's pretty much a work of art. Why don't we start with the basic problem he has with the Girl Scouts: After talking to some well-informed constituents, I did a small amount of web-based research, and what I found is disturbing. The Girl Scouts of America and their worldwide partner, World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS), have entered into a close strategic affiliation with Planned Parenthood. You will not find evidence of this on the GSA/WAGGGS website-

If ever we needed a reminder of the media's extreme pro-abortion bias, we received it with their coverage of last week's two marches, the March for Life on Friday and the Women's March on Saturday. The first event was all but ignored, aside from President Trump's historic address to the march; the second event was celebrated and glorified and magnified. The differences in coverage were so glaring as to be embarrassing. But within the echo chamber of leftist media, the bias is so ingrained that it is not even noticed. And it is hardly anything new. In fact, in 1981 , professors S. Robert Lichter and Stanley Rothman "released a groundbreaking survey of 240 journalists at the most influential national media outlets -- including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report , ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS -- on their political attitudes and voting patterns." The survey found these "media elites" to be shockingly liberal, to the point that "54 percent did not regard adultery as wrong, compared to only 15 percent [of the general public] who regarded it as wrong." Not only so, but "Ninety percent agree that a woman has the right to decide for herself whether to have an abortion; 79 percent agree strongly with this pro-choice position." This was in 1981. Little has changed to this day, aside from alternative voices being raised up to combat this one-sided narrative. From 1987-1996, my family lived in Maryland, immediately outside of Washi

The proposal outlined Thursday would eliminate the sharp increase in fuel-economy requirements adopted under the Obama administration in collaboration with California. The fuel-efficiency rules, which were key to former President Barack Obama's efforts to fight climate change, require auto makers to cut emissions enough so that new vehicles sold average more than 50 miles a gallon by 2025. This latest proposal, which is subject to a 60-day public comment period, would still increase targets through 2020 but then hold them at that level, significantly lowering the longer-term requirements through 2026. The new target would be 37 miles a gallon by 2026. The plan gives car companies more flexibility at a time when low fuel prices have resulted in soaring sales of bigger, less-efficient pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles. Those vehicles now account for more than 60% of the U.S. auto market. Trump administration officials say that meeting the current standards would require costly, fuel-saving technology that customers would balk at paying, opting instead to keep older, dirtier and less-safe cars. "Our job is to do what's right for all Americans," Heidi King, deputy administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, disputed the Trump administration's claims, saying greater efficiency saves consumers money and protects their health by lowering air pollution and ad

On Wednesday, the Louisiana state Senate voted 24-1 to outlaw abortions after 15 weeks. Once signed, the bill will only go into effect if federal courts uphold Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban -- which, fingers crossed, seems pretty unlikely. Abortion rights advocates in the state, of course, are not pleased: "Banning access to abortion at 15 weeks is a flat-out violation of Roe v. Wade and Louisiana knows it," said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, referencing the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that legalized abortion. "So little faith does Louisiana have in the constitutionality of their abortion ban that it won't go into effect unless they get an OK from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit." The bill's state Senate sponsor is one John Milkovich, who hopes to see a prison term of two years given to any doctor who performs an abortion after this point, and would like to make abortion completely illegal to begin with. Milkovich (not Malkovich) is rabidly pro-life, pro-gun and a small government enthusiast. He voted against including LGBT-friendly language in marriage laws. He once killed a bill for a sexual survey of teenagers meant to assist the state in understanding what risks teenagers in the state were taking, on account of how it would make them slutty. "Is this destroying the innocence of our children or grandchildren?" he said, rhetorically. "Our children are already in a toxic maelstrom of immorality," and lawmake

Out of all this week's speeches of presidential candidates to AIPAC , the powerful Israel lobby group, Hilary Clinton's was in my book the most convincingly pro-Israel. But she has had to work hard to achieve this status. The Israel lobby is becoming increasingly right wing. AIPAC is widely perceived to have now become the American wing of Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party. More and more, it pushes even Israel down an ever-increasingly fanatical right-wing path. So when Clinton makes the usual liberal platitudes about "two states for two peoples", there is a perception by many in these circles that she may deviate from the path of Israel-right-or-wrong. Kahanist fanatics like the Jewish Defence League in particular hate Hilary Clinton (in this respect, sexism and anti-black racism play a part, since Clinton is perceived to be pro-black, and Kahanist activists like former Jewish Defence League bomber Victor Vancier are extremely racist against African-Americans). Such perceptions are entirely misguided. But it only goes to show that pandering to Israeli whims will never placate Israel. It only demands more and more from the US government. Witness the hatred by many in the lobby of Barack Obama. Despite some signs (long forgotten, before he was elected) that he may offer are more balanced position on Palestine, Obama has been one of the most pro-Israel presidents in history. Billions of dollars in military aid has not only continued, but been guaranteed many years into the futur

It is usually difficult to find an issue, particularly in the form of current legislation, that unites retired generals and admirals, civil libertarians, Tea Party activists, retired intelligence officers, current Obama administration national-security officials, and former Bush administration officials. But this year's defense authorization bill, which passed both houses of Congress this week, did just that. The 666-page bill is a vast document that authorizes $662 billion in defense spending for the fiscal year. Nestled in in this overarching bill are a series of controversial provisions that authorize the president to indefinitely detain terror suspects and require the military to take custody of anyone deemed to be a member of al-Qaeda. The White House issued a veto threat to both the House and Senate versions of the bill. Just about every member of the administration's national-security team--the director of national intelligence, secretary of defense, secretary of state, CIA director, FBI director, and others--said the bill did not give the president enough latitude to deal with terrorist suspects as he or she sees fit. In order to address the administration's concerns, Congress inserted loopholes that make some of the law's most extreme requirements optional. While it is curious what an optional requirement will look like in practice, it raises a more fundamental question: What is the point of the provisions in the first place? The changes allowed the president to lim

The Northeast has seen its fair share of snow this week, but New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie can't blame the winter weather for the slippery slide in his approval ratings. A new poll from Rutgers-Eagleton reports that Christie's approval ratings are the lowest they've been since he took office in 2010. Just 37% of the state's voters have a favorable view of the 2016 Republican presidential hopeful, a figure that's down seven points since the poll was last conducted two months ago. A majority -- 52% -- disapprove of the job he's doing as governor. When those surveyed were asked why they believed Christie's numbers had dropped, 10% said they were turned off by his presidential ambitions and his negligence toward his current office. Fifteen percent cited the "Bridgegate" scandal from September of 2013, when high-ranking Christie officials allegedly closed lanes of the George Washington Bridge allegedly out of political retribution. Another 20% said that the drop was a result of "overall attitude, behavior, and personality." The recent numbers, which come from a poll conducted between Feb. 3 and Feb. 10, represent a continued approval-ratings slide, which has been precipitated in recent weeks by the governor's comment on vaccines. He said during a trip to England that parents should have more choice in decided whether their children should be vaccinated. The three-day trip to the U.K. -- similar to those taken by other GOP hopefuls including Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Wiscons

Recent findings by a group of scientists from the Kyoto University Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) have taken the scientific world by storm, by announcing a stem cell discovery made that will allow gay people to create their own eggs that could be used in a surrogate birth. The discovery raises numerous questions about the findings, as well as its potential uses and abuses. The new results will allow gay men to create an egg of their own, instead of having to use a donated egg from a female donor, thereby allowing creation of a child born with both parents' DNA, not just the DNA of one of the men and the DNA from the egg donor, as is currently the case. This finding has the potential to invigorate the LGBT community, and whispers of its use in this manner are already beginning. The Japanese research team, led by Mitinori Saitou of Kyoto University in Japan, said that they had finally attained their seemingly insurmountable objective, creating eggs from embryonic stem cells, as well as producing eggs that will become healthy offspring. The new technique used bio-engineered eggs fertilized in-vitro with sperm which was also created from stem cells, and then implanted into mice. The resulting pregnancy produced healthy mice, and so far, this accomplishment is a rousing success. The embryonic stem cells used in the study were a different kind of stem cell than what is usually discussed, which are umbilical cord stem cells. This differing type of stem cell

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Friday that lowers the punishment for people who knowingly donate HIV-infected blood. The law also applies to LGBT persons who knowingly expose a sexual partner to HIV without telling them. SB 239 changes both from a felony to a misdemeanor, meaning the penalty has been reduced from up to eight years in prison to a maximum sentence of six months. Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener and Assemblyman Todd Gloria, coauthors the legislation, argued that modern medicine has changed the lifespan of HIV-infected persons and nearly eliminates the chance of transmission. "Today California took a major step toward treating HIV as a public health issue, instead of treating people living with HIV as criminals," Wiener said in a statement. "HIV should be treated like all other serious infectious diseases, and that's what SB 239 does." Supporters of the change said the current law requires an intent to transmit HIV to justify a felony, but others noted cases have been prosecuted where there was no physical contact, so there was an argument intent was lacking. Brown declined to comment on his action. HIV has been the only communicable disease for which exposure is a felony under California law. The current law, Wiener argued, may convince people not to be tested for HIV, because without a test they cannot be charged with a felony if they expose a partner to the infection. "We are going to end new HIV infections, and we will do so not by threaten

The Parents Promise to Kids website allows parents to sign a contract to honor the promise of voting for officials who will choose "children's safety over guns." Attention: We want all parents to sign a contract that promises their children that they will vote for children's safety over guns. We want no children to fear for their lives. CHANGE HAPPENS NOW! Check out our CBS INTERVIEW with @NialaCharles pic.twitter.com/xR32SAQJDv -- Parents Promise To Kids (@ParentsPromise) February 28, 2018 Chants of "vote them out, vote them out" echoed through Washington, D.C., as people across the country gathered for March For Our Lives in a unified voice for gun control. A new initiative has been launched that allows parents to sign a contract with their children to vote in politicians who advocate gun law reforms. Parents Promise to Kids (PPTK) is a website created by Adam Buchwald and Zach Hibshman, juniors at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. It creates contracts for parents and grandparents to honor the promise of voting for officials who will chose "children's safety over guns." "Tragedies such as Columbine, Sandy Hook, the Las Vegas shooting and Pulse Night Club sent a shock throughout the nation. After these events, people demanded change, but nothing happened. This ends now! The people and community surrounding Marjory Stoneman Douglas will be the last to endure such a horrific event. Never again will we allow this to happen," Buchwald and Hibsham wrote

By Alan Silverleib CNN WASHINGTON (CNN) -- To this day, Linda Haywood recalls the shame she once felt for her great-uncle. Jack Johnson was convicted of transporting a white woman across state lines for "immoral purposes." "I could see from the expression on my mother's face that it pained her to tell me about him," she recalled, "but it wasn't just her. The shame was there for all the members of my family." Haywood's great-uncle, Jack Johnson, shocked the nation in 1908 by becoming the first African-American world heavyweight champion. Yet the boxer was arrested not long afterward for taking a white woman across state lines for "immoral" purposes. That case fell apart and the woman later became his wife, but then investigators charged him with a similar offense involving a woman he had dated years earlier. An all-white jury's decision to convict him in that case has come to be widely viewed as a symbol of racial injustice. Now Haywood is working with Sen. John McCain and others to try to clear her great-uncle's name. McCain wants the Senate to pass a resolution urging President Obama to grant Johnson a presidential pardon. It would represent a final vindication for Haywood, a 53-year-old seamstress in Chicago who now views her great-uncle with pride. Her parents didn't tell her until she was 12 that she was related to Johnson, even though she saw his photo at school during lessons on black history. "I remember seeing his picture on the wall of my sixth-grade classroom in Chi