The Thinking Housewife is mad at pope Francis

When people get tired of modern life and yearn for the languid bygone age of genteel manners where everyone knew their proper place and there wasn’t all this talk of ‘equality’ and ‘rights’ and so on that give so many people uppity ideas, many may tune in to Downton Abbey for a refreshing breeze of nostalgia. As for me, I go over to the website The Thinking Housewife where I can be assured that right thinking will prevail and old-fashioned values upheld. [Read more…]

Is Obama is a good man? And does it matter?

My post on why I supported Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning produced quite a strong reaction in which some people took issue with my harsh criticism of Barack Obama. I wrote a follow-up that addressed some of the concerns and I would strongly recommend that people particularly read the responses by Jeffrey Johnson that appeared in the comments to the latter post because he very thoughtfully took issue with my stand. [Read more…]

How the US gave more than asylum to a foreign whistleblower

So senator Lindsey Graham (R-Crazy) is so upset at the possibility of Russia giving asylum to Edward Snowden that he wants the US to boycott the Winter Olympics if they do so. One can only imagine how ballistic he will get if one of the smaller Latin American countries that have offered Snowden asylum (Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, Nicaragua) make good on their promise. Will he call for an invasion? [Read more…]

Saudi Arabia condemns Twitter users to hell

In yet another sign of how the proliferation of social media is worrying authoritarian regimes because it allows people to communicate laterally easily and bypass official news channels, the head of the religious police in Saudi Arabia has warned Twitter users that they have pretty much forfeited any hope of a good afterlife. In addition, the country’s most senior cleric (who has the Monty Pythonesque title of ‘Grand Mufti’) has called Twitter users ‘fools’. [Read more…]

European Union getting fed up with Israeli colonization of the Occupied Territories

Annie Robbins reports that yesterday the European Union has, in a significant step, warned Israel that its continued expansion of illegal settlements in the Occupied Territories has consequences.

“Effective Friday, a new European Union directive with a “territorial clause” bans all EU funding of projects in territories occupied by Israel since the ’67 war: the West Bank including East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. The new directive (pdf), which covers all areas of co-operation between the EU and Israel, culture, academia, sports, economics and science, requires the Israeli government to “recognize in writing that the West Bank settlements are not part of Israel.”

[Read more…]