Uncategorized

At age 25, 7.5 percent of whites are high school dropouts. At age 25, 14.4 percent of African-Americans are high school dropouts By age 25, 30% of whites have earned a college Bachelor of Arts degree. About 14% of African-Americans have: Some 22 percent of American children under 18 live in households below the poverty […]

Uncategorized

“Mull”: Twitter word of the Day (Short Words for 140-Character Messages)

Juan Cole

Twitter imposes a 140-character limit on messages, requiring that authors make every word count. To “consider” or to “contemplate” are long words, and character-hogs. The Middle English word “mull” gets the same work done. The Oxford English Dictionary lists the verb “mull” as of unknown origin. It could be from the noun, “mull,” which in […]

Israel/ Palestine

Israel’s District 9: Its Biggest Ethnic Cleansing since 1948

Juan Cole

30,000 Palestinian-Israelis of Bedouin heritage are are being forcibly transferred by the Israeli government, and thousands of acres of their land is being stolen from them. The 972 article compares it to Apartheid South Africa’s District 6, the inspiration for the film, “District 9” The Palestinian-Israelis are mounting big protests today. Aljazeera English reports Amjad […]

Domestic Surveillance

A Century of America’s Imperial Deep State (McCoy)

Juan Cole

Alfred W. McCoy writes at Tomdispatch.com The American surveillance state is now an omnipresent reality, but its deep history is little known and its future little grasped. Edward Snowden’s leaked documents reveal that, in a post-9/11 state of war, the National Security Agency (NSA) was able to create a surveillance system that could secretly monitor […]

Uncategorized

Step on it! Impala leaps into truck to escape cheetahs (Video)

Juan Cole

Here is the video from South Africa:

Uncategorized

Breadcrumbs and Circus Reruns: How and why US News gave Egypt Short Shrift (Cunningham)

Juan Cole

Philip J. Cunningham writes in a guest column for IC When the Roman empire fell into decline, the people were treated to bread and circuses. With America’s might on the wane, it’s more like breadcrumbs and circus reruns. Just take a look at American news coverage these days; it’s rock around the clock infotainment. The […]

Egypt

Brotherhood, Army risk Civil War: 30 Dead, Hundreds Wounded

Juan Cole

Egypt veered sharply toward the looming specter of civil war on Friday, as the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood continued to call for resistance to the overthrow of Muhammad Morsi, who had been the elected head of state before the army deposed him on Wednesday. On Thursday, the military had arrested the Supreme Guide of […]

Government surveillance

Venezuela’s Maduro: Unlike US Asylees, Snowden didn’t Blow anything Up, just said ‘This is not Right’

Juan Cole

Globovision reports that President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela on Friday offered asylum to US leaker Edward Snowden, in order, he said, to protect him from “imperial North American persecution,” describing the US government as among the “most oppressive in the world.” He said he hoped Snowden would be able to live “quietly in the free […]

Egypt

Egypt’s “Revocouption” and the future of Democracy on the Nile

Juan Cole

The argument over whether what happened in Egypt on Wednesday, July 3, was a coup or a revolution is really an argument over the legitimacy of the actions taken. If it was a revolution, it was perhaps a manifestation of the popular will, and so would have a sort of Rousseauan legitimacy. If it was […]