How to reduce the threat of terrorist attacks

Medea Benjamin takes a logical approach to this question. She identifies ten things that the US is doing that are inflaming tensions in the Middle East and suggests that not doing them might reverse the situation. As she says, “This 10-point plan would significantly reduce terrorist threats, save taxpayers billions of dollars and make Americans more loved and admired in the world. After a decade of wielding the military stick, it’s time for some carrots.” [Read more…]

Obama administration supports prayers at government meetings

As I wrote before, the US Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to the practice of the Town Board of Greece, NY opening its meetings with a prayer that was almost exclusively Christian. The court has put this case on its docket for the 2013-2014 session but a date for oral arguments has not yet been announced. Another federal judge in North Carolina also ordered a county government to stop having an opening prayer at its meetings. [Read more…]

The problem with the NSA data gathering

Most of us are law abiding and not law fearing. By that I mean that people follow the law because they think it is reasonable to do so. This is why people stop at stop signs even in remote areas where there is no one around and they can clearly see that there is no cross traffic. This is also why people (mostly) are truthful about what they say on their tax returns and don’t steal their neighbor’s newspapers and potted plants when they are away. [Read more…]

Yemen and the recent embassy closings

I am still reading Jeremy Scahill’s long but engrossing book Dirty Wars that looks at how the US government now essentially views the entire world as a battlefield and feels that it is free to attack anyone anywhere that it decides is a threat. The book’s main focus is of course the wars in the Middle East but the three interweaving major threads that run through the book shift from events in Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan to other countries, especially Yemen and Somalia. [Read more…]

Once more to the brink

It looks like a significant element of the Republican party has convinced itself that brinkmanship that threatens to bring the government to a halt by withholding funding for its operations unless Obama care is repealed is a winning strategy. They are threatening to shut down the government in the fall unless all funding for Obamacare is removed. This policy is so insane that it has alarmed even people like Mitt Romney. [Read more…]

Interesting same-sex marriage case in the UK

The same-sex law passed in the UK recently exempted religious institutions from having to perform such marriages. But now a couple is testing that provision by taking the church to court.

Barrie Drewitt-Barlow, 42, and his partner, Tony, 49 — millionaires who run a surrogacy company in Britain and the U.S. — have been a high-profile couple since 1999 when they became the first gay couple to be named on the birth certificate of their child. [Read more…]

Needed: Lovejoy’s Law

I think that we need a revised version of Godwin’s Law for anyone who trots out 9/11 as the justification for giving the government sweeping powers that allow it to ride roughshod over the constitution and human and civil rights. New Jersey governor Chris Christie is the latest to hide his authoritarian nature behind the events of 9/11, even stooping to biblical language about ‘widows and orphans’. [Read more…]

Changing views of gender

NPR reporter Margot Adler does softer feature stories for the network and is one of their best reporters, thoughtfully examining various aspects of political and social life. From various things she has spoken about in the past, I figure she is roughly my age which is perhaps why I find many of her takes on issues resonating with me.

In a recent report she described her experience during a recent visit to a college where it struck her forcefully how rapidly views on gender identify have changed in recent years and how she, like many of us in the older generation, has to learn to keep up with the changes, especially with the nature of civil rights struggles. (You can listen to the audio below or read the transcript here. [Read more…]