"Over the past forty years," writes Post blogger Sue Gray. "Palestinians have continuously demonstrated nonviolent forms of opposition to the occupation and theft of their land. "
"Due in part to international pressure which included boycott and sanctions," writes Post blogger Sue Gray, "apartheid in South Africa was brought to an end. But today the same system exists in Israeli occupied Palestine...."
"A man in blackface in this brave new century would invoke the wrath of our culture writ large," blogs the Con Man. "When the tape of a blackfaced act originating in Australia was seen in the United States, the revulsion was immediate, calling to mind Al Jolson singing “Mammy” in blackface nearly a hundred years ago. But what about seeing a black man in whiteface? What about seeing a black President of the United States in whiteface? And what if that insult emanated not from a meaningless talent show down under but from the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) official fundraising presentation?"
Posts filed under 'Foreign Policy'
For most Americans, the word apartheid brings to mind the ruling white minority’s dominance and oppression of the majority black population in South Africa, which was characterized by segregation and racial inequality. Blacks were denied their basic human rights and freedoms, including the right to a nationality, the right to freedom of movement and residence, and the right to peaceful assembly.
Due in part to international pressure which included boycott and sanctions, apartheid in South Africa was brought to an end. But today the same system exists in Israeli occupied Palestine, where the majority Arab population, both Christian and Muslim, are segregated from the ruling Jewish minority.
Continue Reading March 2nd, 2010
It’s been one year since Israel attacked Gaza, killing over fourteen hundred people, wounding thousands, displacing 60,800 civilians and damaging 17,000 homes, resulting in Jewish South African judge Richard Goldstone finding Israel guilty of war crimes and human rights violations. In the last year, Israel has prevented the Palestinian people from rebuilding their homes, businesses, and infrastructure, causing a humanitarian crisis the likes of which the world has never seen.
Continue Reading December 28th, 2009
When Al Qaeda destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001—nearly eight years ago—most Americans, like President George W. Bush, wanted Osama bin-Ladin dead or alive.
Now he barely matters. Al Qaeda has not only reconstituted itself but jihadism in all its heinous forms is a gathering storm in countries around the world. How bad has it become? When a radical Islamic group tried to assassinate the President of a country—Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia—it registered as barely a blip on our national consciousness. News that insurgent group Shahab is removing gold and silver teeth because people have broken religious law in Marka, Somalia, slipped by unnoticed, a minor story from a minor country.
Jihad will not permit dentures.
Continue Reading August 11th, 2009
The diabolically compromised view of our sorties into Iraq and Afghanistan begins with the vision of these wars as well worth the loss of “treasure” when compared to more momentous conflagrations. As the number of deaths has ticked away over the years in a trickle of blood and tissue, supporters of invasion and incursion have been more than happy to wave away one thousand soldiers dead—then two and three and even four thousand.
Compared to the great wars—and the 120 million dead from all the wars of the 20th Century—a few thousand casualties can seem like nothing more than a rounding error.
Somehow both the deniers of the dead and the critics of the war managed to all but miss the most recent threshold of treasure spent—the combined deaths of more than 5,000 United States soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Because much of the coverage was veiled beneath the more immediate news that July 2009 had become the deadliest month for U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, the larger story of our war dead fell through the cracks of the latest news cycle July 20, 2009. In case you’re interested in the details, four Americans killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan helped put us over the top.
Continue Reading July 30th, 2009
God forbid.
Should there ever be a terrorist attack in the United States again, then every finger will be pointed at the Department of Homeland Security. Were they not there on the ramparts with the simple mission of keeping us safe? Is Homeland Security not the repository of the best and the brightest—and best practices—when it comes to keeping us secure against a terrorist attack?
There is the real possibility that the Homeland Security Department will miss the necessary clues because they had more important things to do—like prepare for the next hurricane.
Continue Reading July 30th, 2009
Not much attention was given to World Refugee Day -"Real People Real Needs" on June 20th or our part in keeping two groups refugees. Our invasion of Iraq resulted in approximately 4 million Iraqis becoming refugees with half leaving mostly to take refuge in Jordan and Syria. Many are still afraid to return to Iraq.
According to UN agencies, Palestinian refugees (4.6 million) are the largest and longest existing refugee population. Their dislocation started with 1948 Israeli violence, persecution, land confiscation. etc. to create a Jewish state in Palestine. The violence caused approximately 700,000 Palestinians to flee to neighboring Arab states. Others fled to the West Bank and the Gaza strip.
Continue Reading June 24th, 2009
I don't know what they are.
I do understand that centrifuges are not needed for nuclear power. I do know that centrifuges are needed to produce weapons grade Uranium. The fissile isotope U-235 in the only Standard Temperature gaseous compound of Uranium -uranium hexafluoride (UF6) weighs (molecular weight) slightly more than 99.1477% of the non fissile isotope U-238 in the same chemical compound. Physical means are necessary to separate the two, since they are the same element, there are no chemical means to separate them -- hence the need for centrifuges. Gaseous diffusion filters also work, but are much slower.
Possession of U-235 does not guarantee the desire to build and use a fission bomb any more than bullets and gun possesion guarantees a latent desire to commit murder. Possession certainly makes the acts more acheivable through convenient impulse.
June 9th, 2009
This Saturday started off like most others; my husband and I lying in bed sharing a pot of coffee and conversing about a variety of topics. We call this cherished morning ritual “Coffee Talk,” and it can last anywhere from a half hour to two hours. This morning I had to cut it short because I had a breakfast date.
At 8:45 I walked into town, past dozens of spiffed up cars lining Carbondale’s Main Street for the 11th annual Valley Cruisers Classic Car Show where visitors and locals were enjoying the crisp sunny Rocky Mountain morning as much as I was.
Continue Reading June 7th, 2009
Well boo hoo hoo, Russ wants to go after me for saying that conservatives are the biggest problem in this country. He correctly says I want those pictures published. That is correct, but not right away. We need a diplomatic effort to integrate common interests with the MUSLIM PEOPLES living in subjugation under horrifying "governments." Afterward, we should publish and prosecute the perpetrators son they are recognized as the criminals we had in the previous mal-administration. He says this will endanger the troops!
Continue Reading May 15th, 2009
I truly understand, if your reasoning is to let them advertise their idiocy/ignorance,but.....
I truly believe you should never let them get away with using speciocities as foundations for "argument" (to me, argument implies they have unimpeachable verifiable information, not the heresay of Limbaugh and Hannity or Beck). When you do so, it seems to validate their stone age tools for argument in the Space, Nuclear, Digital age of information. When they talk and "argue," it sounds to me like blathering obfuscation and conflation of superstitious mumbo jumbo boogey men and the monster under the bed. All they have, and you have correctly called them on this, is the mythic legacy of Reagan, who took many actions in diametric opposition to much of the rubbish recapitulated in smiling ignorant absolutism of today's espoused "conservatives." Can you imagine WFB having a conversation with Palin? I think he is hammering in palings around his grave to blunt the charge of the ignorant brigade, or choking on his vomit to die again rather than face a confederacy of dunces (great book!). Please, as a friend take this as an exhortation to stand firm against their efforts to drill little holes of doubt left by not hermetically sealing their "arguments," and a photo of the intellectual wreckage of conservative "argument."
Continue Reading April 22nd, 2009
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