Shameful behavior by the New York Times

When the Bush-Cheney regime went on an orgy of torture, they denied that what they were doing deserved that label and the US media became extremely coy about calling it that, although the practices such as waterboarding had been unambiguously condemned as torture when done by Japanese on American prisoners of war and the perpetrators had been executed. The New York Times was one of the worst culprits during that period, routinely using the phrase ‘enhanced interrogation’ that the Bush administration wanted them to use instead of calling it torture.
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Shark attacks

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution equipped an underwater drone with six cameras to observe shark behavior in the wild off the coast of Mexico. When the great white sharks thought that the drone was either threatening them or was possible prey, the cameras caught some stunning footage of their reaction.
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Israeli troops shot and killed fleeing civilians

In a post on July 25, I mentioned early reports of a possible massacre by Israeli troops in the town of Khuza’a near the Israeli border, with social media providing gruesome stories. In a new report, Human Rights Watch confirms it, saying that between July 23 and 25, Israeli troops deliberately targeted civilians, killing them as they walked with their hands up or carrying white flags or were running away.
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Black Jesus

There is new comedy show appearing on cable TV.

The new show stars Gerald “Slink” Johnson as a modern-day black Jesus living in rough-and-tumble Compton, Calif., spreading “love and kindness” with a “loyal group of downtrodden followers,” according to Turner Broadcasting System’s press release.
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In a statement, Adult Swim said “Black Jesus is a satire and one interpretation of the message of Jesus played out in modern day morality tales; and despite what some may consider a controversial depiction of Jesus, it is not the intent to offend any race or people of faith.”

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Focus on health, not weight

There is a new study out that reinforces a point that I have made repeatedly, that focusing on people’s weight (as measured by the Body Mass Index) instead of their health is the wrong way to go and in fact may be harmful because it discourages people from a healthy lifestyle, despite all its benefits, if it does not result in weight loss. As one of the authors of the study says:
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New government leaker emerges

Yesterday’s The Intercept story by Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Devereaux about the numbers of people caught up in the various government’s watch lists was based on confidential documents from the National Counterterrorism Center that was leaked to them. What was interesting is that these were not part of the trove of documents released by Edward Snowden and the date of the documents is August 2013 showing that they were created after Snowden left the NSA.
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