Reputation for bigotry linked to different history of secularism
Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion?
The cases of four British Christians re-open the debate on whether there is a place for religion in the workplace.
The Obama administration and the cover-up of CIA torture
The 156-page report produced by Human Rights Watch (HW) is based upon interviews with 14 Libyans subjected to “extraordinary rendition” and torture by the CIA and then forcibly returned to Libya, where they were imprisoned and in some cases tortured again by the government of Col. Muammar Gaddafi. Substantiating their testimony are classified documents—communications between the CIA and Libyan intelligence—found in the abandoned offices of former Libyan intelligence chief Musa Kusa after Tripoli fell to NATO-backed rebels in September 2011.
FBI Begins Installation of $1 billion Face Recognition System Across The USA
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has reached a milestone in the development of their Next Generation Identification (NGI) program and is now implementing the intelligence database in unidentified locales across the country, New Scientist reports in an article this week. The FBI first outlined the project back in 2005, explaining to the Justice Department in an August 2006 document (.pdf) that their new system will eventually serve as an upgrade to the current Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) that keeps track of citizens with criminal records across America.
9/11, Bin Laden and the Tyranny of the Corporate Media
This essay originally appeared on September 21, 2001 in my Daily Iowan column, “Firing Line.” The piece uses George Orwell’s 1984 as a basis to suggest how from the very beginning the corporate media played a central role in setting the stage for the prevalent Osama bin Laden-Al Qaeda myth, the related “blowback” thesis vigorously embraced by the progressive-left community, and the assemblage of rearguard actions defending such perspectives and reflexively labeling all accounts conflicting with government pronouncements as “conspiracy theories.”
Canada: Selling Its Soul to America
Canada is more colony than sovereign state. Canadians perhaps wonder when it'll grow up, act like an adult, and regain its rightful independence.
Police May Block Mobile Devices Via Apple
pple has patented a piece of technology which would allow government and police to block transmission of information, including video and photographs, from any public gathering or venue they deem "sensitive", and "protected from externalities."
It is Not Enough To "Have" Human Rights, It Is Essential To Know Them And Own Them As a Way of Life
Having met face to face with people living in hundreds of communities around the world, facilitating dialogue about human rights as a way of life, I choose not to engage in the discourse about diversity and/or intercultural dialogue and not even peace. I believe that such discussions destract us from holding the necessary and essential conversations that can lead to the planning of meaningful ways and means to facilitate the learning of human rights as a way of lfie throughout the world.
The Future Of International Law
It is becoming increasingly clear that the concept of the absolutely sovereign nation-state is a dangerous anachronism in a world of thermonuclear weapons, instantaneous communication, and economic interdependence. Probably our best hope for the future lies in developing the United Nations into a World Federation.
Che, My Father: Daughter Recalls The Revolutionary
Che, a symbol of revolution around the world, was murdered 45 years ago. Aleida, Che’s daughter tells about the revolutionary.
Will We Continue to Ignore the Poor?
e've got a problem in this country. I know it, you know it, and the politicians know it too, but most won't even say it out loud: poverty. We're bracing ourselves for next month's release of the 2011 numbers -- most economists predict that we're looking at the highest rates of poverty in fifty years.
Politics and Plutocrats: A Parade of Inequality
merica is currently engaged in the most expensive presidential contest in world history. In the United States, money doesn't just talk – it dictates. How can we hope to make progress on the path to sustainability when the road is blocked by barricades of bullion backed by battalions of billionaires? How do we break through the political gridlock?
A New Sexual Revolution
y new book, Vagina: A New Biography, has just come out in the UK – to a whirlwind of reaction. Why write about the vagina? And why now?
Chick-fil-A, the Party of Hate, and the 2016 GOP Presidential Nomination
Chick-fil-A fast-food restaurants specialize, it would appear, in providing high-calorie food featuring fried chicken. They are found only in certain parts of the country; those parts generally presenting with, it would seem, higher than even the normal US obesity rates. Just to remind you of what the fuss was all about, the CEO of Chick-fil-A, one Dan Cathy, has been active for some years in several of the leading national homophobic organizations.
Real Unemployment at 23% - Dampening the Excitement
There was a shadow over the national conventions of both political parties. The people know that the economy is much worse than anyone in the power structure will admit. As usual, the people are right. The real rate of unemployment is 23%, not the official figures we hear on a regular basis. The 23% figure represents all of those unemployed no matter how long, the involuntarily under employed (part time), and those who have given up looking, the discouraged, due to an chronically arid job market. If either wing of The Money Party, Democratic or Republican, admits to the the real unemployment situation, they would be forced to admit a complete system failure and compelled to act to act. There would be no choice but to drop the nonsense about austerity and balanced budgets.
Iran and human rights: a new landscape
The Iranian president's forthcoming visit to the United States is an opportunity to highlight the continued repression under his regime, says Omid Memarian.
Is the end of cheap food just an agricultural problem
Food is getting scarce - and expensive. This is no longer news. But can we really confine ourselves to thinking about the agricultural end of this problem?
More than 50 million face hunger in the US
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported Wednesday that 14.9 percent of Americans faced food insecurity in 2011. This means that one in six people lives in a household that is at risk of hunger. Of the more than 50 million people in the US for whom hunger is a reality, nearly 17 million are children.
The country's leaders don't believe deterrence or diplomacy will work with Iran. But war could be catastrophic
It's harder than you'd think to find out exactly who received what. An explanation, by the numbers
10 Rankest Hypocrisies of Mitt Romney and the Republican Party
The hyper-hypocrisy of today’s GOP has spread through the party’s bloodstream.
How Reforming Welfare and Gutting Programs for the Poor Became a Bipartisan Platform
The real scandal is that both parties have made kicking the poor a prerequisite to winning office.
The Great Riches of Our Seas Have Been Depleted and Forgotten
Just as overfishing impoverishes the life of the sea, the forgetting impoverishes our own lives.
http://www.npr.org/2013/07/28/206231873/who-spies-more-the-united-states-or-europe
