Yesterday’s election results showed that the left-wing party Syriza led by a 40-year old former communist Alexis Tsipras has won . As an aside, I was encouraged to see that he departed from tradition and rather than being sworn in by the archbishop as tradition dictated, he had a civil ceremony.
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Reports have just emerged that Google handed over to the US government all the emails and other communications that it had on three staffers of WikiLeaks under a secret search warrant issued by a federal judge. They did this nearly three years ago but only revealed it recently.
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The three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) are all patriarchal in the roles they assign to genders within the family. The husband is the head of the household and calls the shots and the wives and children follow his orders, at least in theory. Women are supposed to bear children (the more the better) and be responsible for taking care of them and for cooking, cleaning, and otherwise maintaining the household. These roles become more pronounced and extreme the more fundamentalist the believers are.
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In my comments about the crowded Republican field last week, I said that Sarah Palin would not run (it’s too much work) but would drop hints that she might so that she could milk her deluded supporters to continue to support her in the style to which she has become accustomed.
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Well, that is not actually true though you should be nice to your friends anyway, and to people in general for that matter. What a new study suggests is that your peers’ view of your personality is a better predictor of your mortality than your own view of yourself.
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He looks over the list of candidates that are seeking the Republican nomination and finds them all so depressing until suddenly someone appears on the scene who really lifts his spirits.
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I was dismayed by this report that dairy producers are concerned about the overproduction of milk resulting in prices dropping too low and so they are dumping milk down the drain.
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A Southern Baptist minister of a large church came under fire because in his Christmas message he suggested that the Ten Commandments were ‘sayings’ or ‘promises’, rather than mandates. Initially he responded to the backlash by defiantly saying, “If those who are angry at what I said about The 10 Commandments were actually following all 10, the world would be such a better place!”
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Two days ago, president Obama gave his state of the union speech that I, as is my usual practice, did not watch. I really hate meaningless political rituals. Apparently he listed several progressive proposals and was not at all conciliatory towards the Republicans or their agenda, even making pointed digs and laughing and winking at them, which has infuriated them.
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If there is one thing that most people agree on, it is that Saudi Arabia has one of the most brutal, intolerant, and anti-democratic government and judicial systems in the world. So what happens when its long-time ruler dies? Shouldn’t we say “good riddance” and hope that he will be replaced by someone who offers even the hope of positive change.
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