I ask myself, “Why?” Why do US cable news networks intensively cover these mass shootings, making it the only story for a day or two and prying into every detail of them, when they aren’t interested in preventing them from happening again through banning semi-automatic weapons? Is it just, like, a natural disaster to them? […]
Archives for December 2012
39 Murders by Gun Annually in Britain; 9,000 in US
Reprint edn. Number of Murders, United States, 2009: 15,241 Number of Murders by Firearms, US, 2009: 9,146 Number of Murders, Britain, 2008*: 648 (Since Britain’s population is 1/5 that of US, this is equivalent to 3,240 US murders) Number of Murders by[pdf] firearms, Britain, 2008* 39 (equivalent to 195 US murders) *The Home office reported […]
Top Ten GOP Myths about Libya that Sank Susan Rice
The charge against US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice was led by a handful of Republican senators and congressmen, and based on the alleged deficiencies of her account of the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi on September 11. She withdrew her name from consideration for secretary of state on Thursday. The […]
Why HSBC “money-laundering” is Mostly about US Bullying Foreign Policy
The “money-laundering” scandal about British bank HSBC is a mixed picture. On the one hand, bank officials laundered money for Mexican drug cartels, allegedly knowingly, which only pond scum would do. Still, the cartels are only in business because the US government irrationally opposes legalization of innocuous agricultural products such as marijuana (the US goes […]
Will Egyptian Left & Liberals Urge a “No” vote on Constitution or Boycott?
The left, liberal and centrist parties grouped in the National Salvation Front have decided to campaign for a “no” vote on the constitution in the two-part referendum that begins on Saturday, rather than boycotting it, assuming certain conditions are met. The decision came in the wake of large dueling demonstrations on Tuesday by the left […]
Hostess Executives Dipped into Employees’ Pension Funds
Executives of Hostess, the maker of “Twinkies,” have admitted that they did not put the money paid into workers’ pension plans into a separate account. Rather, they basically stole the money and used it for operating expenses. In turn, the money inevitably supported the executives’ own bonuses. (This practice is not illegal in the US, […]
Michigan Republicans propose anti-Sharia law to Discriminate against Muslim Americans
Michigan State legislator David Agema has introduced an anti-sharia bill that attempts to ban the implementation of ‘foreign law’ in the US that would contradict constitutional rights. Agema openly says he wants to target the Muslim-American community of southeast Michigan, falsely alleging that there are terrorist cells among them. Arab-Americans have emerged as an important […]
America’s Afghanistan Odyssey: When will Enough be Enough? (Stevenson)
Jack Stevenson writes in a guest column for Informed Comment: The US has been involved, covertly or openly, in military actions in Afghanistan since 1979, with no end in sight. Nor, after all these decades, is the news very good. A Taliban assassination attempt has put Afghanistan’s chief intelligence and security official in the hospital. […]
Israel’s Apartheid Deepens (Cole at Truthdig)
My essay on the aftermath of the Gaza conflict is out in Truthdig; it is entitled “Israel’s Apartheid Deepens, Along With Its Global Isolation” Excerpt: “Building a new, large settlement in the E-1 area between west Jerusalem and the big settlement of Maale Adumim just nine miles from the Dead Sea border with Jordan would […]