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Archives for May 2014

Apartheid
Pope Francis to call for Sovereign, Independent Palestinian State from Bethlehem

Pope Francis to call for Sovereign, Independent Palestinian State from Bethlehem

Juan Cole

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin is signaling that Pope Francis in his visit to Bethlehem on Sunday will strongly support the right of Palestinians to a sovereign state. Implicitly, Pope Francis will condemn the Apartheid system of military rule used by Israel in the West Bank, though he likely won’t use the word. […]

Apartheid
Anthony Bourdain on Palestinians:  "The World has visited many terrible things on" them, robbed of their Humanity

Anthony Bourdain on Palestinians: “The World has visited many terrible things on” them, robbed of their Humanity

contributors

Anthony Bourdain: it is something we do all the time: “Show regular people doing everyday things–cooking and enjoying meals… It is a measure, I guess, of how twisted and shallow our depiction of the people is that these images come as a shock to so many. The world has visited many terrible things on the […]

astronomy and outer space
NASA's Launch Pads menaced by Sea Level Rise it is Charged to Monitor

NASA’s Launch Pads menaced by Sea Level Rise it is Charged to Monitor

contributors

Sea level rise forces US space agency to retreat (via AFP) Sea level rise is threatening the majority of NASA’s launch pads and multi-billion dollar complexes famous for training astronauts and launching historic missions to space, scientists said Tuesday. From Cape Canaveral in Florida to mission control in…   —– Related video: WBPT2: “South Florida’s […]

Dissent
Iran "Happy" Video Arrestees out on Bail but Pharrell Cover goes Viral

Iran “Happy” Video Arrestees out on Bail but Pharrell Cover goes Viral

contributors

Iran frees ‘Happy’ video dancers on bail (via AFP) Six young Iranians arrested for dancing on rooftops to US singer Pharrell Williams’ hit “Happy” in a video that went viral on the Internet have been released on bail, reports said Wednesday. The reports were confirmed by Tehran-based fashion photographer…   — Related video: The Young […]

Civil Rights
Historian who Made History: Vincent Harding, Civil Rights Pioneer and King Confidant

Historian who Made History: Vincent Harding, Civil Rights Pioneer and King Confidant

contributors

(By Ken Butigan, Waging Nonviolence) Historian by profession and relentless nonviolent advocate by calling, Vincent Gordon Harding died on Monday, May 19, at the age of 83. The author of a series of books on the civil rights movement — which he called the Southern Freedom movement — he not only wrote history, but also […]

Egypt
Top 5 Wars on Religious Extremism in Today's Muslim World

Top 5 Wars on Religious Extremism in Today’s Muslim World

Juan Cole

The Fox News commentators who say that the Muslim world is not doing enough to police its own extremist movements don’t actually seem to be reading the news. If anything in a number of countries they’ve gone overboard with a Bush style ‘war on terror.’ To wit: 1. On Wednesday, the commander of Libya’s Air […]

Dissent
If Senate's Phony Journalist "Shield Law" wouldn't Protect a Glenn Greenwald what Good is It?

If Senate’s Phony Journalist “Shield Law” wouldn’t Protect a Glenn Greenwald what Good is It?

contributors

Back in March, we pointed out that Senator Chuck Schumer had more or less admitted that his attempt at a media shield law (protecting sources) likely wouldn’t protect Glenn Greenwald. While Schumer argued that it was still “better than current law,”…

censorship
The BuSSy Monologues in Egypt:  I will pinch your ass and grab your boobs, and you can't talk about it:

The BuSSy Monologues in Egypt: I will pinch your ass and grab your boobs, and you can’t talk about it:

contributors

(By Sondos Shabayek) “You can’t go on stage and say this,” the state-owned theater director told me.   “How do you suggest I say it otherwise?” I replied. “Just use ‘bleep’ or say that someone said an inappropriate phrase or committed an inappropriate act in my presence.” “So when someone pinches my ass and another […]

Apartheid
Israel Accused of War Crime over Army "Execution" of Innocent Palestinian Teens

Israel Accused of War Crime over Army “Execution” of Innocent Palestinian Teens

contributors

(By Lauren McCauley) According to rights group Defense for Children International — Palestine, which obtained and circulated the security camera footage, Nadeem Siam Nawara, 17, and Mohammad Mahmoud Odeh, 16, sustained fatal gunshot wounds on May 15 by Israeli Defense Forces after participating in a demonstration near the Ofer military prison in the West Bank. […]

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