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Archives for December 2013

Europe Lawmakers Push Back on Circumcision

Europe Lawmakers Push Back on Circumcision

News Aggregator

Encouraged by Israeli diplomats, parliamentarians from the Council of Europe have submitted a motion opposing an earlier resolution condemning ritual circumcision of boys. Click here for the rest of the article…

Afghanistan
American Public: Invasion of Afghanistan a Mistake, Speed up Withdrawal

American Public: Invasion of Afghanistan a Mistake, Speed up Withdrawal

contributors

(By Sarah Lazare) More than twelve years after the initial invasion, U.S. public opinion of the so-called Good War in Afghanistan appears to be souring. A clear majority of people in the U.S. say the 2001 decision to attack Afghanistan as a response to the events of September 11th was a mistake and that the […]

Human Rights
UN: A Million Palestinians will Need Food aid in Israel-blockaded Gaza Next Year

UN: A Million Palestinians will Need Food aid in Israel-blockaded Gaza Next Year

Juan Cole

PressTv reports, “The UN says nearly a million Palestinians are expected to need food aid in the Gaza Strip next year” Their blurb: “About 800-thousand Palestinian refugees are currently receiving food aid from the U-N Relief and Works Agency– UNRWA– but the organization expects a 10 to 20 percent rise in demand in 2014. The […]

Syria
Four Syrian Bedouin Women, c. 1890 (Photo of the Day)

Four Syrian Bedouin Women, c. 1890 (Photo of the Day)

Juan Cole

Photo of the Day: Four Syrian Bedouin women in the late 19th century. Mirrored from Al-Mashriq Syria in 1900 had a population of a little less than 3 million (not counting what is today Lebanon). My guess is that some 10-20% of the population was at that time pastoral nomads or transhumants, i.e. livestock raisers […]

Climate Change
Scotland is going 100% Green by 2020; shame on Dirty America

Scotland is going 100% Green by 2020; shame on Dirty America

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) Glasgow is the city of the future, not Phoenix. Scotland has a population of about 5.3 million, a little more than the US state of Arizona. But the resemblance stops there. Arizona’s state government is backward-looking, roiled by racial politics, contemptuous of higher education, and a climate laggard, dirtying up the atmosphere […]

Featured
Congress cuts Food Stamps, maintains Estate Tax Loophole worth $100 bn to the Rich

Congress cuts Food Stamps, maintains Estate Tax Loophole worth $100 bn to the Rich

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) You know how the Tea Party House of Representatives obsessed with cutting food stamps to working families and veterans and children this fall? They were trying to save $4 bn. At the same time, they have kept in place a piece of fatally flawed legislation regarding estate taxes that has cost the […]

Environment
Real Time Earth Wind Map

Real Time Earth Wind Map

Juan Cole

Real Time Earth Wind Map from Earth Nullschool.net h/t Treehugger

Domestic Surveillance
Taiwanese Animators Explain to Obama the Unconstitutionality of NSA Spying (Video)

Taiwanese Animators Explain to Obama the Unconstitutionality of NSA Spying (Video)

Juan Cole

“NSA data mining program probably unconstitutional, judge says” (Taiwanese Animators)

Iran
How to get an Iran Nuclear deal:  Top 7 Confidence-Building Steps

How to get an Iran Nuclear deal: Top 7 Confidence-Building Steps

Juan Cole

(By Bijan Khajehpour, Reza Marashi and Trita Parsi) [Excerpts from a new report from the National Iranian American Council:] Upon assuming the presidency in January 2009, Barack Obama told the world that if Iran were willing to unclench its fist, it would find an extended hand of friendship from the United States. Nearly five years […]

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