By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The headlines Friday about the GOP debate in Miami stressed how relatively civil it was, with less name-calling and pissing matches among the remaining candidates. Those editors have a weird definition of civility. So here is Marco Rubio: “Let me give you an example of a […]
Archives for March 2016
The FBI’s outrageous assault on the 1st Amendment and Apple
By Andrew Crocker | ( Electronic Frontier Foundation ) | – – Last week, EFF filed a brief in support of Apple’s fight against the FBI, in which we argued that forcing Apple to write—and sign—a custom version of iOS would violate the First Amendment rights of Apple and its programmers. That’s because the right […]
Turkey’s Gender Stereotyping made a Mockery of Women’s Day
By Ece Basay | ( Globalvoices.org ) | – – March 8 is marked as International Women’s Day in Turkey, and is typified as elsewhere across the world by speeches appreciating the role women play both in the workplace and at home. Yet for the remainder of the year, women face an uphill struggle to […]
Giant British security firm G4S to end Israeli business after BDS pressure
Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — British security giant G4S announced Wednesday plans to sell its Israeli businesses in the next 12 to 24 months citing commercial reasons, according to the official website of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement. The world’s largest private security company has been a major target for […]
America’s Groundhog Day in Afghanistan and Iraq: The Headlines just Recycle
By Tom Engelhardt | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – With General John Campbell’s tour of duty in Afghanistan finished, a new commander has taken over. Admittedly, things did not go well during Campbell’s year and a half heading up the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) there, but that’s par for the course. In late 2015, while […]
Top 6 Signs Trump is wrong & Islam doesn’t ‘Hate us’
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Republican presidential candidate and billionaire bigot Donald J. Trump said in a CNN interview on Wednesday that “Islam hates us.” “I think Islam hates us” . . . deploring the “tremendous hatred” that he said partly defined the religion. He maintained the war was against radical […]
Why Isn’t this News? US-Saudi War Helping al-Qaida Flourish in Yemen
By Bill Hess | (Informed Comment) | – – The just-announced negotiations between Houthi rebels and Saudi Arabia may or may not lead to a subsiding of hostilities in Yemen, though early signs are that fierce fighting continues. The United States has been helping a Saudi Arabia-led coalition drop bombs on Yemen for nearly a […]
Does Fracking give you Cancer?
By Tom Giesen | (Informed Comment) | – – Alarming and world-shaking new findings have emerged about the dangers of waste water from hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”). Researchers have assessed the potential health impact on human cells of back water from fracked oil and gas wells in upstate New York. The result? Human test tissues develop […]
Biden: Israel cannot stop violence solely through physical force
Ma’an News Agency | – – BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — United States Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday said Israel could not stop violent acts carried out by Palestinians solely through physical force, the Associated Press reported. Biden landed in Tel Aviv Tuesday as multiple attacks were carried out by Palestinian individuals in Israel and occupied […]