Archive | April, 2010

Tonight you celebrate the independence day of the state of Israel.  I do not. You probably believe that the Jews deserve a state, that the Holocaust survivors and their children had a right to a safe home of their own, and that the Land of Israel is the natural and legitimate place to fulfill the […]

Only tyrants stay in power by sending tanks on to the streets.  So why won’t Abhisit call an immediate election?  Answer: he knows he would lose. Soldiers stand under a sign saying “We Won’t Use Violence.”  The guns are obviously for eating noodles. Abhisit says these people are terrorists! Keeping the streets safe from democracy. […]

  Having tried to use the witch cord that erases the stretch of thirty-three blocks and tuning in the voice which woodenly stated that the talk box was “disconnected” My mother, religiously girdled in her god, slipped on some love, and laid on my bell like a truck, blew through my door warm wind from […]

  Two former soldiers from the Army unit responsible for the Wikileaks “Collateral Murder” incident have written an open letter of “Reconciliation and Responsibility” to those injured in the July 2007 attack, in which US forces wounded two children and killed over a dozen people, including the father of those children and two Reuters employees.  […]

My first thought upon reading the Chicago Council’s report “Engaging Religious Communities Abroad: A New Imperative for U.S. Foreign Policy” is that the title is misleading.  This report is not about engaging religious communities abroad — one hears little if at all from such communities — nor does it say anything particularly new.  There is, […]

  By one swift, decisive act, it has paralyzed Europe’s airline industries for almost a week, delayed 64 thousand flights (and counting), affecting millions of travellers, reminding a whole continent that geography and distance still exist, while lessening the airlines’ carbon footprint by an amount equal to the annual output of several smaller states combined, […]

Another Kind of Volcano: Part 1 “It’s a pity that there is no active volcano in Israel.” “Why?” “To discharge a cloud of ashes in its airspace.” “And then?” “The country would be subjected to a total aerial blockade.” “You mean, like Gaza?” “Not at all.  The blockade of Gaza is comprehensive, by air, by […]

New Orleans’ Black and transgender community members and advocates complain of rampant and systemic harassment and discrimination from the city’s police force, including sexual violence and arrest without cause.  Activists hope that public outrage at recent revelations of widespread police violence and corruption offer an opportunity to make changes in police behavior and practice. On […]

  For more information, visit <cmpcc.org>. | | Print  

“In California, the kids write Occupy Everything on the walls.  Demand Nothing, they write. . . .  We are kept alive, vaccinated, some even plump, yes, but we feel our surplus status.  Excess.  Excessive.  This excessiveness animates our underlying dissatisfaction. . . .  That is the crisis, a lost faith in an inhabitable future, that […]

  There is an embarrassing giddiness in the religious studies world today.  With our new mantra in hand — the new “salience” of religion — we, both scholars of religion and other self-appointed spokespersons for religion, feel licensed to instruct the world on the importance of religion.  We are suddenly relevant again.  Or so we […]

Rail freight carrier and passenger train companies have been finding ways to get their workers to do more for less for the past few decades.  Considering how much the economy of the U.S. depends upon the massive amount of freight moved by trains, one would think the unions representing those workers to be very powerful. […]

Actions against the inauguration of Ben-Gurion Promenade by Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë and Israeli President Shimon Peres, Paris, 15 April 2010 Activists successfully disrupted the official ceremony, while the Arc de Triomphe was covered by a giant Palestinian flag.   Among the young activists who organized the actions in solidarity with the Palestinian people were […]

This issue of putting taxes on imports for reasons of climate change* has become a very hot topic. . . .  The developing countries are very much against such a measure because they see it as protectionism.  They see it as a way for the developed countries to evade their responsibilities to provide finance and […]

During the military parade on Army Day in Iran, what looks very much like an Iranian variant of the Russian S-300 air defense system was on display. In 2007, Tehran announced that it signed a contract to buy S-300 from Russia, but Moscow, lobbied by Washington and Tel Aviv, has not delivered, citing “technical problems.”  […]

Executive Summary: In its first attempts to regulate carbon emissions, the U.S. government is undermining its own efforts by relying on deeply flawed economic models that lead to gross miscalculations of the impact of carbon on the climate and on the nation’s economic future. Agencies seeking to incorporate climate change considerations in rules and regulations […]

I had the privilege of talking for three hours last Thursday 15th with Hugo Chávez, president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, who had the gentility to once again visit our country, this time arriving from Nicaragua. Few times in my life, perhaps never, have I met a person who has been capable of leading […]

The crisis persists.  Tens of millions remain unemployed or underemployed.  Millions are losing their homes this year adding to millions last year.  States and municipalities are cutting back on schools, hospitals, programs for disabled and the elderly, etc.  Business and political leaders stretch to keep the public away from blaming the system, capitalism. So we […]

  Fyodor Savelyevich Khitruk, born on 1 Mary 1917, is a Russian animator.  This film was released by Soyuzmultfilm in 1973. | | Print  

I would like to welcome the honorable guests who have gathered here.  It is a pleasure for the Islamic Republic of Iran to be the host of the International Conference on Nuclear Disarmament today.  I hope this occasion will be an opportunity to yield enduring and important results from your dialogues and discussions for the […]