Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill has been following the case of a Yemeni journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye who uncovered a story in which a US air attack in 2009 in that country killed 14 women and 21 children. His story ran contrary to the US government’s usual bland assertion that the victims were ‘al Qaeda militants’, which was then dutifully repeated by the mainstream US media. [Read more…]
Once in a while, a furious debate flares up about the proper tone that people should use in exchanges with one another on the internet. This occurs within the skeptic community as well, the most prominent division being between the groups now referred to as accommodationists and the new atheists. The most common charge laid against the latter is that they sometimes use intemperate language in criticizing both religion and the accommodationist position. [Read more…]
Greg Smith, a senior executive at investment bank Goldman Sachs, has resigned and fired off a salvo at what he describes as the “toxic and destructive” environment of that institution, where they routinely disparage their clients as ‘muppets’ while ripping them off. [Read more…]
The uproar generated by Rush Limbaugh repeatedly referring to Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke as a ‘slut’ and a ‘prostitute’ on his widely listened to radio program is showing little sign of dying down. Apparently many advertisers have pulled their support from his show, though this may be just a temporary setback for him. As long as he continues to command a large audience, advertisers will likely slowly come back once the furor dies down. [Read more…]
So says the UN special rapporteur on torture Juan Mendez.
Mendez told the Guardian that he could not reach a definitive conclusion on whether Manning had been tortured because he has consistently been denied permission by the US military to interview the prisoner under acceptable circumstances. [Read more…]
Stephen Colbert explains the deep thinking that lay behind Herman Cain’s recent weird ad, explaining all the subtleties and nuances that Cain was seeking to convey in what might seem to the hoi polloi like a brutal peticide. Colbert also produces his own ad in a similar vein. [Read more…]
One of the ways is which ordinary people are intimidated is by the government passing all manner of laws that violate basic rights and then selectively using those laws to go after those they dislike or are powerless, while exempting the elite classes from prosecution. This has the effect of making people, especially political activists, constantly have to be on the alert in case they violate this or that law passed in the war on terror. [Read more…]