Please support Taslima Nasrin

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.
[Read more…]

The Saddam Hussein argument stopper no longer works

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.
[Read more…]

Who said this about the price we pay for a massive military?

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.

[Read more…]

Another Democrat enters the race

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.
[Read more…]

When did disaster press conferences become like awards speeches?

Cartoonist and essayist Ted Rall asks a good question.

This is for you older readers: when did news conferences become long-winded acceptance speeches?

I’m too young to remember for sure, but there must have been a time when, after a train derailment or a tornado or a flood or a race riot or whatever, public officials stepped up to the microphones to deliver a status update (“as soon as we learn more, we’ll let you know”), and perhaps some advice to the public (“avoid downed live wires, especially the ones that are sparking, like in that movie The Ice Storm”), answered reporters’ questions and left the stage.

Today’s news conferences are a dreary, undignified mélange of pro forma acknowledgements and sentimental pabulum.

[Read more…]

The strange case of Dennis Hastert

I am in Washington, DC for a conference and so read the hard-copy version of the local paper the Washington Post. One thing about reading the hard copy is that one tends to go through the entire paper rather than zeroing in on the main topics you are interested in when you read it online. The big story today was the indictment of the former speaker of the House of Representatives Dennis Hastert, who retired from Congress in 2007 and (surprise!) became a high-paid lobbyist.
[Read more…]

The US and Israel block the creation of a nuclear-free Middle East

The US and Israel repeatedly use the threat of nuclear weapons being developed by other countries as the basis for going to war. They used that fear of an ‘imminent’ nuclear threat in the case of Iraq even though that was known to be false. And now they are using that same argument against Iran. So you would think that they would welcome a move towards nuclear non-proliferation in that region, right?
[Read more…]