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Appeal to religious leaders to embrace women and gay rights
Roland Michel Tremblay
At the forefront of all human rights in the world today, before we could even be scandalised by how blatantly religious leaders speak against and bully gays, lesbians and transgenders, would be women rights. In a way these battles for recognition of the most basic human rights are very similar. The first step to address the issue is for religious leaders to change their discourse and embrace all human beings for who they are on an equal basis. Pope Benedict XVI, please lead the rest of Christianity into the new millennium, embrace all human rights! After all, Jesus Christ never talked against a third gender.
AHMADINEJAD WON INDEED AND THE REAL SOURCE OF INTERFERENCE IN IRAN’S ELECTION IS LIKELY THE UNITED STATES
John Chuckman
A recent article called “Ahmadinejad Won, Get Over It” by Flynt and Hillary Leverett is not the only source with serious credentials offering reasonable, non-sensational explanations for events around Iran’s presidential election.
Kaveh Afrasiabi, a scholar who once taught at Tehran University and is the author of several books, says many of the same things.
The situation in Iran is an equation with more than two sides
By Vahab
The situation in Iran is an equation with more than two sides:
1- Iranian people, fighting for their right.
2- Government, trying to push people back.
3- Reformists, trying to gain power in government. Aligned with people.
Rafsanjani, the representative of the pragmatist faction of the theocracy, trying to overthrow the supreme leader (aligned with people).
Tarnished Shields: The Morally Bankrupt 'Family Values' Republican Leadership
by Walter Brasch
Mark Sanford
Some columns are easier to write than others.
This is one of them.
Providing all of my research were the "family values" Republicans.
This week, second term Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina disappeared for six days, leaving the state without a chief executive who could make decisions in an emergency. His Republican lieutenant governor didn't know where he was, and had not been given any authority to make decisions in his absence. The state police said they had not been informed. His wife told the Associated Press she didn't know where he was, wasn't worried about him, and thought he was "writing something and wanted some space to get away from the kids" over the Father's Day weekend. His senior aides said he was walking along the Appalachian Trail to "clear his head."
CARL OLSEN: "This bud's for you"
The New American Dream Interview - Iowan CARL OLSEN, fighting the drug war an Army of one
"I’ve never served in the military, but almost went to prison for resisting the draft. I showed up at the induction center with a Bible and said my religion does not allow me to kill people. Marijuana is my sacrament. God made it, wicked governments hate it. - I spent two years in prison, from 1984 to 1986, for unloading a boat with 20 tons of marijuana on board. - Legalization of drugs would seriously disrupt the flow of money from illegal markets to legal ones, and most of the financial industry has already tooled up for a lengthy drug war and the illegal profits that generates. Just think of Al Capone and the bootlegging industry. - If you want war, you keep them in the dark by keeping them drunk all the time. Alcohol promotes violence. Marijuana promotes peace."
HERE'S TO THE CRAZY ONES AND I'M ONE OF THEM
Allen L Roland
Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait, 1889
"My aim in my life is to make pictures and drawings, as many and as well as I can; then at the end of my life, I hope to pass away, looking back with love and tender regret, and thinking, "Oh, the pictures I might have made!" ~ Letter to Theo van Gogh (Vincent's brother), November 19, 1883
I've always been crazy enough to live my dreams and I'm still doing it. I've always said YES to myself and not allowed myself to be controlled by fear. Now I'm living my ultimate dream of sharing and celebrating my thoughts and feelings as a writer and therapist ~ and making a difference in the process:
I've always wanted to make a difference, to share my truth and have it hit a chord that resonates with others.
I've always wanted to just be myself, as outrageous as that might be, and know that it was enough!
Where do the two June elections leave Hezbollah?
Franklin Lamb,
Dahiyeh
Some Legmen for the US Israeli lobby, and even some here in Lebanon appear barely able to contain themselves, such is their felt glee over the Lebanese and Iranian election results. Some supporters of Israel see this election as two recent victories while others calculate that Israel is scratching for some good news given that polling data from Israeli surveys show that more than 50% of its population favors bombing Iran to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Another survey, late last month, found that nearly one third of Israelis polled said they would leave Israel if Iran gets a nuclear weapon which it likely will have-if it decides to-within the next 18 months according to estimates by the Israeli Defense Ministry. Meanwhile US visa applications have broken records, according to the US Embassy in Tel Aviv for three out of the past five months..
One, election Israel hoped would help it maintain its occupation of Palestine was the June 7th Lebanese election (which the Hezbollah led opposition actually won by nearly ten percent of the popular vote.) But it may have to look elsewhere for solace because rather than being defeated and weakened, Hezbollah is currently stronger in Lebanon than it has ever been. The Party is dominating the construction of the next Lebanese government, as it negotiates the terms of its support for Saad Hariri as Prime Minister. Hezbollah’s popular support has increased due it its post election sportsmanlike acceptance of the results and its conduct and efforts at accommodation with its political adversaries.
Beyond Politics: People for Sale in Hungry World
By Ramzy Baroud
One might be tempted to dismiss the recent findings of the US State Department on human trafficking as largely political. But do not be too hasty.
Criticism of the State Department's report on trafficked persons, issued on 16 June, should be rife. The language describing US allies' efforts to combat the problem seems undeserved, especially when one examines the nearly 320- page report and observes the minuscule efforts of these governments. Also, it was hardly surprising to find that Cuba, North Korea, Iran and Syria -- Washington's foremost foes -- languish in the report's Tier 3 category, i.e. countries where the problem is most grave and least combated. Offenders in Tier 3 are subject to US sanctions, while governments of countries in Tier 1 are perceived as vigilant in fighting human trafficking.
Who's A Low Level Terrorist? Are You?
By Emily Spence
Recently, an American Civil Liberties Union report pointed out, "Anti-terrorism training materials currently being used by the Department of Defense (DoD) teach its personnel that free expression in the form of public protests should be regarded as ‘low level terrorism’.” [1]
Despite that DoD officials removed the offensive section from their educational resources at the urging of ACLU members, the DoD stance is still troubling since a longstanding practice to designate peaceful, law abiding activists as dangerous and treasonable still exists in many government departments and agencies. Indeed the participants of the first antiwar protest against the Vietnam incursion, put together in the mid-1960's by peaceable Quakers and FOR members after having discussed Gandhi's Salt March as a model for a nonviolent demonstration, faced government operatives filming them face by face from rooftops as they moved en masse down Broadway to the UN Plaza. (My mother, a pacifist married to a World War II Conscientious Objector, and I, a child at the time of the march, both were in attendance. When the film crew focused on us, she stood tall, faced the agents with their telephoto lens, glared in disdainful defiance and, simultaneously, throw the corner of her coat over my face. Afterwards, she muttered, "How dare they try to intimidate us!")
Have a cup of coffee with Vanunu
eileen fleming
Photo © eileen fleming, Mordechai Vanunu,
July 14, 2009 @ the American Colony
Mordechai Vanunu can be found most any day from 3-5 PM, having coffee in the garden restaurant of the American Colony, in occupied east Jerusalem.
On June 14, 2009 Vanunu said:
"They renewed the restrictions to not speak to foreigners until November.
"I meet foreigners every day. I am talking with people every day.
"But I am not writing or announcing the appeal until after it happens.
"It was scheduled for January, then May 6th and June 18th. Now I am waiting for a new court date.
"The Central Commander of the General Army testified in court that it is OK if I speak in public as long as I do not talk about nuclear weapons.
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