This is what war does to the occupier: When Lt. Col. Dave Wilson took command of a battalion of the 4th Brigade of the 1st Armored Division, the unit had just returned to Texas from 14 months traveling some of Iraq’s most dangerous roads as part of a logistics mission. What he found, he said,…
Please sign a piece of paper that accepts Zionist control over us all
The growing mood in Israel for citizens to pledge a “loyalty oath” – why should Arabs be forced to accept a Jewish state, a nation deliberately designed to exclude them? – is gaining traction. Max Blumenthal and Joseph Dana explore the issues and gain insights on the streets of Jerusalem. The ugly heart of Zionism:
America, keep your dirty hands away from fighting web repression
Sami ben Gharbia, the advocacy director for Global Voices, asks that Washington cease its largely counter-productive campaign to assist dissidents around the world. Image problem, anybody? Many people outside of the U.S, not only in the Arab world, have a strong feeling that the Internet Freedom mantra emitting from Washington DC is just a cover…
Yom Kippur bottom assistance
Jews, your troubles are solved: Not so fast! Jews throughout Williamsburg snapped up caffeine suppositories today, hours before the start of the Yom Kippur fast that would deprive them of the jolt — and hunger suppression — that coffee typically provides. The day-long fast is the centerpiece of the holiest day on the Jewish calendar…
Israel will do business anywhere (with friend or foe)
This is a wonderful essay in the New York Review of Books about Dubai, a city continually built by imported slaves, and includes these fascinating insights about the role of the Jewish state in this Arab land ruled by a corrupt royal elite: One alleged arms buyer was Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a fifty-year-old Hamas operative based…
There’s no truly safe way to surf the web in the Islamic Republic
For anybody who writes about web censorship and finding ways around it, the lesson in this story is that skepticism towards new-found tools is vital. We’ve all been guilty of celebrating prematurely a piece of software that may help a dissident in Iran or China. Beware: A piece of software called Haystack, which claimed to…
Jon Stewart on using fooking humour to make his point
Wonderful New York profile of Jon Stewart and the Daily Show, a program that becomes even more essential as America’s two-party system crumbles before our very eyes (but don’t tell them; they don’t need to realise): After September 11, Stewart began to employ his newfound anger, becoming a voice of comic sanity in the whirlwind…
We weren’t in Iraq for the cheap booze?
Futility and criminality yet no accountability: British soldiers in Iraq were “dying for no strategic benefit” because Tony Blair’s government did not appreciate what it was taking on when it planned the invasion, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the chief of defence staff, has told MPs. There was a “failure of strategic thinking” in…
America embraces poverty and mad capitalism in one clean shot
This is a first world country and the leading super-power? The downturn that some have dubbed the “Great Recession” has trimmed the typical household’s income significantly, new Census data show, following years of stagnant wage growth that made the past decade the worst for American families in at least half a century. The bureau’s annual…