Several dramatic accusations and events have heightened Sunni-Shiite tensions in Lebanon, as the Syrian Civil War continues to spill over onto Beirut’s politics. In the northern city of Tripoli, Sunni Salafis (who support the rebels in Syria) have fought in recent days with `Alawis (a sect of the Shiites, who support Syria’s Alawite-dominated Baath government), […]
On the 80th Anniversary of Repeal of Prohibition, Why isn’t Marijuana Legal?
It is the eightieth anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition. Among the many reasons for the popularity of banning alcohol in the US then were the concern of industrialists such as Henry Ford for the creation of a sober, industrious working class. Prohibition was in part intended to regiment and control working people and ensure […]
The Public Professor: Dissent in Commodified Higher Education
by Christian Christensen The Public Professor: Dissent in Commodified Higher Education Or…What Kind of University Will My Daughter Attend in 2027? The following is the text of my public Professorial Installation lecture given at Uppsala University. These lectures have been given at Uppsala University for centuries, and are intended for a broad audience. In 1967, […]
Top 10 Ways the US is the Most Corrupt Country in the World
Those ratings that castigate Afghanistan and some other poor countries as hopelessly “corrupt” always imply that the United States is not corrupt. VOA reports : While it is true that you don’t typically have to bribe your postman to deliver the mail in the US, in many key ways America’s political and financial practices make […]
Israeli Blockade of 40,000 Gaza Fishermen Briefly Broken by Youth Protesters
About 200 Palestinian youth ctivists briefly broke the Israeli blockade on fishing off Gaza past an arbitrary 6-mile limit on Monday. World Bulletin writes: “”We want to show the world that there are people under occupation who are being starved in Gaza while the world is watching,” Ishraq Mahmoud, spokeswoman of the Palestinian Uprising Youth […]
Can even Colbert make us laugh at America’s tragic growing Wealth Divide?
Stephen Colbert on America’s astonishing wealth divide, which has even the Wall Street Journal worried: Boing Boing gives us the statistics : “#1 The lowest earning 23,303,064 Americans combined make 36 percent less than the highest earning 2,915 Americans do. #2 40 percent of all American workers (39.6 percent to be precise) make less […]
Americans are 5% of World Population, consume 1/4 of its Energy (infographic)
Source: InternationalBusinessGuide.org
G. Willow Wilson on her Ms. Marvel Character as Muslim-American Superhero (BBC)
The BBC interviews G. Willow Wilson, creator of the reboot of the Ms Marvel comic book as a young Muslim-American. Here is the BBC interview: Informed Comment covered this development earlier: “ Umberto Eco argued that Superman, from the character’s inception in the 1940s through about 1970, was a politically conservative figure. The stories were […]
Libya Needs UN Forces, National Reconciliation to Resolve its Crisis (Al Ghwell)
by Hafed Al Ghwell Libya needs to formulate a vision and a plan for what it wants to be in 10 or 20 years. It needs an economic strategy that will re-start the economy and offer jobs On August 31, 2011, few days after the fall of Tripoli to the disorganised and mixed bag of […]
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