The Russian Punk Rock band “Pussy Riot” has released a new video, Rolling Stone reports, entitled “Like a Red Prison,” in which they attack Russia’s oil magnates and their ties to President Vladimir Putin. The song likens Putin to Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei because of his favoritism toward the Russian Orthodox Church, and complains that […]
The End of Dissidents: The National Security State wants a World without Thoreaus (Engelhardt)
Tom Engelhardt writes at Tomdispatch.com It’s hard even to know how to take it in. I mean, what’s really happening? An employee of a private contractor working for the National Security Agency makes off with unknown numbers of files about America’s developing global security state on a thumb drive and four laptop computers, and jumps the nearest plane to Hong […]
Top 10 Reasons Americans should Dismiss Israel’s Netanyahu on Attacking Iran
The Iranian electorate did about the most cruel thing possible to uber-hawk Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. It replaced former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with an eminently reasonable and personable successor, Hasan Rouhani. The Israeli and American politicians who desperately want to fall on Iran the way a hungry lion does on a lamb had […]
“Mull”: Twitter word of the Day (Short Words for 140-Character Messages)
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 […]
Kenya: Solar Power on a Pay as you Go Plan gives Light, rechargers to Villagers
“Small solar home systems bring good quality light and phone-charging to off-grid households and save them money. Yet their upfront costs render them out of reach for the people who would benefit most from them. UK-based startup Azuri has developed a pay-as-you-go interface which allows households [in Kenya and East Africa] to pay for solar […]
Obama Explains his NSA Domestic Spying & Why it differs from Bush’s (Cartoon satire)
Cartoon satire: “President Obama explains why Americans should not be concerned about the NSA’s secret data collection program and that he is very different from George W. Bush.” The video is here:
Israel’s District 9: Its Biggest Ethnic Cleansing since 1948
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 […]
The Backlash against Political Islam is not a Backlash against Islam: Egypt and Bangladesh
There is a big difference between being a believing Muslim and being a devotee of political Islam. Political Islam attempts to make the religion a platform for gaining governmental power. This movement (political Islam or the Muslim religious Right) has been very important in many Muslim countries in the past few decades, but its rise […]
Guns and Sissified Punks (Friday Scene)
From the 1995 stoner movie “Friday”: The father [John Witherspoon] of Craig Jones [Ice Cube] warns him against carrying a gun in the local neighborhood if he wants to be a real man: The video is here:
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