One of the best ways for a nation to develop is to provide equal opportunities for education for its girls, followed closely by easy availability to clean water and sanitation, the latter two being important factors in improving health and life expectancy. Although education for girls may seem to be an unmitigated good, there are many factors that work against it.
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As we all know, Christians are a highly persecuted group in the US, forced against their deeply held beliefs to not discriminate against the LGBT community. The situation has got so bad that various states are passing their own versions of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) to provide relief to this beleaguered group. Indiana is one of those states that passed such legislation and the governor of the state Mike Pence signed it into law
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I am about two-thirds of the way through the fascinating book The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI by Betty Medsger that deals with the 1971 break-in to the FBI offices in Media, PA by a group of eight anti-war and civil rights activists who took away all the files and then revealed all those that showed that the FBI was engaged in all manner of illegal activities, such as spying on and harassing people who were engaged in purely legal actions of dissent and maintaining extensive dossiers on thousands of people. Medsger uses that story as a springboard to also write a comprehensive true history of the FBI as revealed by the documents and subsequent discoveries as opposed to the myths that the agency cultivated. (See here, here, and here for earlier posts on this topic.)
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There are some encouraging signs that Bernie Sanders’s campaign for the Democratic nomination is picking up support. He is drawing large crowds during his first visit to Iowa, surprising pundits and causing them to take notice.
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When it comes to discussing issues of gender identity and transgender issues, I must admit that I tread very gingerly simply because it is so new to me. Even though I personally know six people who are transgender, I don’t feel that I fully understand all the nuances involved and thus am cautious so as to avoid inadvertently saying something insensitive or even offensive.
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The recent murders of three secular bloggers Avijit Roy, Washiqur Rahman, and Ananta Bijoy Das in Bangladesh by religious extremists purportedly linked to al Qaeda have resulted in serious concerns for the safety of others who are still there. One of the FtB bloggers Taslima Nasrin lived in India and had also been targeted with death threats. Given the recent history in that part of the world, this was not a threat to be taken lightly and the local police did not inspire confidence in their ability to protect her.
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When critics of the Iraq war condemn it and criticize those who started it and the others who acted as cheerleaders, supporters frequently come back with what they feel is the ultimate argument clincher, that the world is better without Saddam Hussein and so for that reason alone the decision to invade was the correct one, even if subsequent events have resulted in a disastrous situation.
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Jon Oliver of Last Week Tonight thinks that the arrests of top FIFA officials for widespread corruption does not go nearly far enough and has launched one of his campaigns, this time calling for the removal of its long time head Sepp Blatter, which he says could be facilitated by major sponsors withdrawing their support for FIFA.
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Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms in not spending money alone.
It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities.
It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population.
It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals.
It is some 50 miles of concrete highway.
We pay for a single fighter with a half million bushels of wheat.
We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.
This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking.
This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.
Martin O’Malley has made a formal announcement that he is seeking the Democratic nomination for president. He has long hinted that he would do so. When it comes to progressive policies, his lie somewhere in between those of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. His opening statement sounded some populist themes, including the key one of the growing wealth and income gap. He also targeted Clinton.
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