 Saturday 07 January 2012 Noam Chomsky | Recognizing the "Unpeople"Noam Chomsky, Truthout: "On June 15, the African Union (AU) informed the United Nations Security Council that 'ignoring the AU for three months and going on with the bombings of the sacred land of Africa has been high-handed, arrogant and provocative.' The AU went on to present a plan for negotiations and policing within Libya by AU forces, along with other measures of reconciliation - to no avail…. That comes as no surprise: Africans are 'unpeople,' to adapt George Orwell's term for those unfit to enter history." Read the Article Dispatch from Detention: A Rare Look Inside Our "Humane" Immigration Jails Seth Freed Wessler, ColorLines: "Immigration detention centers claim their share of criminal abuses … and rampant sexual assault by guards…. But for many detainees, the worst part of awaiting expulsion is not the acute trauma inflicted inside the jails. Most carry with them the unhealed wounds of violence from life on the outside that the humiliating baseness of life inside these jails reopens." Read the Article Occupying Fears About Iran Winslow Myers, Consortium News: "Too many of us still refuse to see the practical relevance of such values either to international or personal politics…. We assume thousands of nuclear warheads in the control of a democratically elected leader are qualitatively different from the same weapons in the hands of a dictator … 'Our' nuclear weapons are justified by our need for security, while 'theirs' indicate an unacceptable aggressiveness." Read the Article For Iranians Waylaid by Pirates, US to the Rescue C. J. Chivers, The New York Times News Service: "In a naval action that mixed diplomacy, drama and Middle Eastern politics, the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis broke up a high-seas pirate attack on a cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman, then sailors from an American destroyer boarded the pirates' mother ship and freed 13 Iranian hostages who had been held captive there for more than a month." Read the Article New Hampshire Primary Outcome Rests on Independents David Lightman, McClatchy Newspapers: "The outcome of Tuesday's New Hampshire primary probably depends on this state's historically unpredictable independent voters. About 40 percent of the state's registered voters are formally unaffiliated with any political party, and they can vote in the GOP primary. Some who plan to vote supported President Barack Obama in 2008. Some think Mitt Romney … is their kind of independent. And some wear the 'undeclared' label because it makes them feel, well, independent." Read the Article Unequal Risks and Benefits for Citizens in Six States on Keystone XL Pipeline Route Lisa Song, InsideClimate News: "If the Keystone XL oil pipeline were approved today, residents in the six states along its route would not receive equal treatment from TransCanada, the company that wants to build the project. The differences are particularly striking when it comes to tax revenue and environmental protection. States with stronger regulations have won protections for their citizens, while other states sometimes focused more on meeting TransCanada's needs." Read the Article Science with a Skew: The Nuclear Power Industry After Chernobyl and Fukushima Gayle Greene, The Asia-Pacific Journal: "'The media are saturated with a skilled … effective advocacy campaign by the nuclear industry, resulting in disinformation' … states the Worldwatch Institute. What is less well understood is the nature of the 'evidence' that gives the nuclear industry its mandate, Cold War science which, with its reassurances about low-dose radiation risk, is being used to quiet alarms about Fukushima and to stonewall new evidence that would call a halt to the industry." Read the Article New Hampshire's New Scopes Trial Staff, Diatribe Media: "New Hampshire took an early lead this year in the effort to dumb down school students and erode the separation of church and state in the education system by introducing two anti-evolution bills to its state legislature … The most troubling and ridiculous part of the comments from the legislators introducing these bills is not only the anti science nature of them, but the idea that atheism is on par with murder, totalitarianism, and other 'criminal ideas.'" Read the Article Speeding Up Security: The TSA Wants to Screen Before They Scan Lena Groeger, ProPublica: "TSA body scanners continue their steady advance into our nation's airports, but another agency security initiative begins well before travelers ever reach a checkpoint. PreCheck, the TSA's nascent pre-screening program, allows some pre-approved frequent travelers to make it from check in to take off in record time - if they give the government access to lots of information in return." Read the Article OWS, Egypt Expose Limits of Town Square Test Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Miller-McCune: "At the heart of the Town Square Test is the notion that the difference between living in a 'free' state and living in a 'fear' state is clear and comes down to whether a person can go to the town square and 'express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm'…. On closer inspection, however, a survey of last year's gatherings in public places around the world actually reveals the fundamental problems with the Town Square Test." Read the Article Click here for more Truthout articles
The BuzzFlash commentary for Truthout will return Monday, January 9. "Repeal Obamacare" Demagogues Eat Away at Our National Greatness Like a Cancer Forced Military Testing in America's Schools Exposed: The Military's Freakiest "Non-Lethal" Weapon Ideas The Myth of New Hampshire's Maverick Voters Teachers Decide to Work for Free After Budget Cuts Leave Pennsylvania School District Without Funds for Salaries Definition of Rape Now Includes Men, New Government Policy Says The GOP's "Black People" Platform Click here for more BuzzFlash headlines
---------- Support Truthout with a tax-deductible donation by clicking here.
|
||||
