Articles by ICH

We found 2433 results.


Obsession with Growth Is Asset Stripping the Planet
John Lichfield in Lyon – The Independent, 27 Sep 2010

Obsession with economic growth and the greed of financial speculators are destroying efforts to conserve the world’s diminishing resources. British and French speakers from radically different backgrounds, and with sharply contrasting styles, found themselves singing an unlikely political duet at the Lyon environment forum. Big business, they said, must be stopped from “asset stripping” a failing planet.

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Nuclear Dangers and Opportunities in the Middle East
Richard Falk and David Krieger – Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, 27 Sep 2010

Hardly a week goes by without an Israeli top official threatening to attack Iran so as to disrupt or destroy its nuclear program, which is suspected of moving in the direction of acquiring nuclear weapons. Shamelessly, as well, the extreme right think tanks in the Washington Beltway and many faithful followers of Israel echo these dangerous sentiments. They send Tel Aviv a signal that it has a green light to launch an attack on Iran at the time of its choosing, along with the reassuring message that the United States Government will step forward in support, whatever the adverse economic and diplomatic consequences for the region.

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A Real Test
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 27 Sep 2010

Two students went drinking late into the night before an exam.

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Accused of Telling the Truth: A Campaign to Free Bradley Manning
Ann Wright - ICH, 27 Sep 2010

He now faces decades in prison for letting Americans see the truth about our wars on Iraq and Afghanistan by allegedly leaking the “Collateral Murder” videos — of two Reuters’ journalists being shot and killed by a U.S. helicopter — to WikiLeaks. Manning also is being investigated in the leaks of the “Afghan War Diary” documents that were also released by WikiLeaks — in conjunction with the New York Times, The UK Guardian and the German magazine Der Spiege l– exposing the war in Afghanistan as a costly quagmire that has cost countless civilian Afghan lives, as well as the lives of over 1,000 U.S. soldiers.

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Perspectives
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Sep 2010

When the United States Congress passed stricter laws about automobile air pollution, the Japanese car manufacturers…

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Never Forget: Bad Wars Aren’t Possible Unless Good People Back Them
Michael Moore - ICH, 20 Sep 2010

I know we’ve been “free” of the Iraq War for two weeks now and our minds have turned to the new football season and Fashion Week in New York. And how exciting that the new fall TV season is just days away! But before we get too far away from something we would all just like to forget, will you please allow me to just say something plain and blunt and necessary:

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Sudan: Prospect and Lesson
Richard Cockett – Open Democracy, 20 Sep 2010

The forthcoming referendum on independence in south Sudan could lead to the break-up of Africa’s biggest country. But if Sudan has failed as a unitary state its end carries dangers.

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9/11 Analysis: From Ronald Reagan and the Soviet-Afghan War to George W Bush and September 11, 2001
Michel Chossudovsky – Global Research, 13 Sep 2010

In the Pashtun language, the word “Taliban” means “Students”, or graduates of the madrasahs (places of learning or coranic schools) set up by the Wahhabi missions from Saudi Arabia, with the support of the CIA. Education in the years preceding the Soviet-Afghan war war largely secular in Afghanistan. The number of CIA sponsored religious schools (madrasahs) increased from 2,500 in 1980 to over 39,000. The Soviet-Afghan war was part of a CIA covert agenda initiated during the Carter administration, which consisted in actively supporting and financing the Islamic brigades, later known as Al Qaeda. President Ronald Reagan met the leaders of the Islamic Jihad at the White House in 1983. Under the Reagan administration, US foreign policy evolved towards the unconditional support and endorsement of the Islamic “freedom fighters”. In today’s World, the “freedom fighters” are labeled “Islamic terrorists”.

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Meanwhile in the Soviet Union…
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 13 Sep 2010

Stalin claimed he was the greatest philosopher of all times.

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America’s Empire and Endless Wars Are Destroying the World, and Ruining Our Great Country
Terrence McNally and Andrew Bacevich - AlterNet, 13 Sep 2010

Andrew Bacevich speaks with a fairly unique mix of experience, authority, passion and wisdom in questioning our nation’s priorities: specifically our willingness to place so much of our national identity, wealth, attention, moral practice, and finally the life and blood of many thousands of our citizens and millions of those of other countries in the hands of our military. A professor of history and international relations at Boston University, Bacevich served twenty-three years in the U.S. Army, retiring with the rank of colonel. He lost his son in Iraq. A graduate of the U. S. Military Academy, he received his Ph. D. in American Diplomatic History from Princeton University. He is the author of several books, including The New American Militarism; The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism; and his newest, Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War.

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More Mao Than Thou: What the Hell Is Happening in Nepal?
Reese Erlich – Truthdig, 6 Sep 2010

Nepal’s parliament will attempt to elect a prime minister, the sixth try in almost three months. The impasse reflects the deep antagonism between the Maoists, Leninists, Marxists and socialists who are all fighting for control.

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No Comment
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 6 Sep 2010

A monk and a nun play ping-pong.

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Iraq to Spend $13B on U.S. Arms, Equipment
Jim Michaels - USA Today, 6 Sep 2010

Iraq is preparing to buy as much as $13 billion in American arms and military equipment, a huge order of tanks, ships and hardware that U.S. officials say shows Iraqi-U.S. military ties will be tight for years to come.

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Sounds Familiar
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 30 Aug 2010

A little boy wanted $100 very badly, he prayed and prayed for two weeks but nothing happened.

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Two Dangerous Ingredients in Everyday Products That Are Threatening Our Health
Jill Richardson - AlterNet, 30 Aug 2010

Numerous chemicals that are legally used in personal care products are untested, inadequately tested, or even proven harmful, but few are as widely used and as unnecessary as the endocrine disrupting chemicals triclosan (an ingredient in 75 percent of liquid hand soaps) and triclocarban (most commonly found in deodorant bar soaps).

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A Case of Decency Deficit – An Analysis
Professor Lawrence Davidson - ICH, 23 Aug 2010

Many Israelis are convinced that the Palestinians are barbarians, “beasts walking on two legs,” who want to “push the Jews into the sea.” The answer to this alleged threat is to convince the Palestinians that they are “a defeated people.”

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Assembly Line
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 23 Aug 2010

Two people went along a road with pick and shovel.

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America’s Biggest Jobs Program — the U.S. Military
Robert Reich - ICH, 23 Aug 2010

America’s biggest — and only major — jobs program is the U.S. military. Over 1,400,000 Americans are now on active duty; another 833,000 are in the reserves, many full time. Another 1,600,000 Americans work in companies that supply the military with everything from weapons to utensils. (I’m not even including all the foreign contractors employing non-US citizens.)

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US – Venezuela: The Empire Strikes Back (and Loses)
Prof. James Petras – ICH, 16 Aug 2010

US policy toward Venezuela has taken many tactical turns, but the objective has been the same: to oust President Chavez, reverse the nationalization of big businesses, abolish the mass community and worker based councils and revert the country into a client-state.

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The U.S. Ploy to Promote Genetically Engineered Seeds and Pesticides to Poor Mexican Farmers Is Impoverishing Their Communities
Jill Richardson - AlterNet, 16 Aug 2010

The Obama administration’s Feed the Future initiative promises a second Green Revolution that will feed a planet of nine billion people by doubling crop yields by 2050. But considering that we produce enough food to feed the planet today and a billion people still go hungry, are yields really the problem? And if they are, are providing Green Revolution technologies like hybrid and genetically engineered seeds, chemical fertilizer and pesticides to subsistence farmers the best way to achieve them? I visited subsistence farmers in Mexico to find out.

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The Horrific Derivatives Bubble That Could One Day Destroy the Entire World Financial System
Michael Snyder – The Economic Collapse, 16 Aug 2010

Today there is a horrific derivatives bubble that threatens to destroy not only the U.S. economy but the entire world financial system as well, but unfortunately the vast majority of people do not understand it. When you say the word “derivatives” to most Americans, they have no idea what you are talking about. In fact, even most members of the U.S. Congress don’t really seem to understand them. But you don’t have to get into all the technicalities to understand the bigger picture.

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Earth Song
Michael Jackson – TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 Aug 2010

Michael’s powerful video calling attention to our destruction of the Earth and of each other.

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From Marx to Goldman Sachs: The Fictions of Fictitious Capital
Michael Hudson - ICH, 16 Aug 2010

As published in Critique, based on a presentation given at the China Academy of Sciences, School of Marxist Studies in Beijing in November 2009, and at the Left Forum in New York City, March 20, 2010.

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Symmetric
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 Aug 2010

A husband and wife spent their vacation at a lake where he enjoyed fishing.

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From Church Bulletins
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 9 Aug 2010

“Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church.

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The Fall of the US Empire – And Then What? (Part 1)
Paul Jay interviewing Johan Galtung and Dennis Kucinich -The Real News Network, 2 Aug 2010

Johan Galtung and Dennis Kucinich discuss the proposal for a Department of Peace.

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The Fall of the US Empire – And Then What? (Part 2)
Paul Jay interviewing Johan Galtung and Dennis Kucinich - The Real News Network, 2 Aug 2010

Dennis Kucinich and Johan Galtung discuss the proposal for a Department of Peace.

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Children
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 2 Aug 2010

“Don’t worry if children don’t listen to you.

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The Listening Post – South of the Border
Richard Gizbert – Al Jazeera, 2 Aug 2010

This week, we bring you a special edition of the Listening Post. Richard Gizbert sits down with Academy Award-winning director Oliver Stone to talk about his new film ‘South of the Border’ and the surprising role that media, both Latin American and North American play in shaping and reflecting the narrative of South America’s political history.

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The End of (Military) History?: The United States, Israel, and the Failure of the Western Way of War
Andrew J. Bacevich - TomDispatch, 2 Aug 2010

“In watching the flow of events over the past decade or so, it is hard to avoid the feeling that something very fundamental has happened in world history.” This sentiment, introducing the essay that made Francis Fukuyama a household name, commands renewed attention today, albeit from a different perspective.

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Humanizing Methodologies in Transformation
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service, 26 Jul 2010

Talk at the University of South Africa sponsored by the College of Law – 20 Jul 2010

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Republican what?
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 26 Jul 2010

A man went to a pawn shop in San Francisco and discovered a brass rat that intrigued him. He asked the store owner how much it cost. The owner said, “With the story 100 dollars, without the story 10 dollars.”

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Spirit and Science in the Vedanta
Michael Nagler – Tikkun Magazine, 19 Jul 2010

But that was then. Now the great breakthroughs of Einstein and Bohr have delivered a rude shock to the paradigm of Western science, and “only Vedanta,” as a prominent Indian physicist who joined religious orders as Swami Jitatmananda said in 1986, “seems to be in a position to absorb the tremendous impact of the new science.” The Vedanta—a general term for the spiritual culture of ancient India—developed a quantum theory of mind 5,000 years before Planck discovered that energy comes in discrete packets (or quanta).

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(Italian) Spirito e Scienza nel Vedanta
Michael Nagler – TRANSCEND Media Service, 19 Jul 2010

Ma questo avvenne allora. Adesso le grandi conquiste di Einstein e Bohr hanno dato un bello shock al paradigma della scienza occidentale e, come disse nel 1986 un eminente fisico indiano passato a un ordine religioso come Swami Jitatmananda, “solo il Vedanta sembra essere in grado di assorbire il tremendo impatto della nuova scienza.” Il Vedanta, termine generale per la cultura spirituale dell’India antica, sviluppò una teoria quantistica 5000 anni prima che Planck scoprisse che l’energia arriva in pacchetti discreti (o quanti).

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Oliver Stone Tells the Real Story of the Leftist Latin American Leaders Transforming the Continent
Daniela Perdomo - ICH, 19 Jul 2010

Stone’s new film traces the rise of Chávez, Lula, Evo, and others who see participatory democracy and cooperation between Latin American countries as the future.

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On Shyness and Inteligence
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 Jul 2010

The people of Minas Gerais in Brazil are said to love cheese. A man there met a ferry, and she promised to grant him three wishes.

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(Castellano) Unión Europea Amenaza con Dictaduras Militares
Heinz Dieterich – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Jul 2010

José Durão Barroso, ex Primer Ministro de Portugal y actual Presidente de la Comisión Europea ha advertido a los sindicatos y movimientos populares de Europa que si no aceptan los paquetes neoliberales de austeridad, podrían instalarse dictaduras militares en España, Grecia y Portugal…. La burguesía europea plantea, en otras palabras, un ultimátum al movimiento obrero y popular: paguen sumisamente los costos de la crisis que el gran capital ha causado, o se los hacemos pagar por la vía de la bota militar. En lenguaje político: si ofrecen resistencia a la reducción de su nivel de vida pasaremos de la dictadura burguesa velada (democracia representativa) a la dictadura burguesa abierta.

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Deep-Sea Mining Adds to Fears of Marine Pollution
Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor – The Independent, 5 Jul 2010

Concerns about large-scale marine pollution, fuelled by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, are set to be heightened by a new development in exploitation of the oceans: deep-sea mining. The Chinese government has just lodged the first application to mine for minerals under the seabed in international waters, in this case on a ridge in the Indian Ocean 1,700 metres (more than 5,000ft) below the surface.

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Honduras Resistance Strong despite US-Supported Coup
Bill Quigley and Laura Raymond - ICH, 5 Jul 2010

One year ago, on June 28, 2009, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was awakened by gunfire. A coup was carried out by US-trained military officers, including graduates of the infamous US Army School of the Americas (WHINSEC) in Georgia. President Zelaya was illegally taken to Costa Rica. Democracy in Honduras ended as a de facto government of the rich and powerful seized control.

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Why Did It Take a Rock Magazine to Report the Military’s Total Disaster in Afghanistan?
Peter Richardson - Alternet, 5 Jul 2010

Anyone in the Pentagon press corps could have written the story that took down McChrystal. So why did it appear in Rolling Stone?

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Viewpoint
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Jul 2010

During the German occupation of France, a German soldier entered Picasso’s studio

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Leader of Death Squads Wins Colombian Election
Prof. James Petras - ICH, 5 Jul 2010

A Great Victory For Democracy? Juan Manuel Santos, notorious Defense Minister in the regime of outgoing President Alvaro Uribe and closely identified with high crimes against humanity “won” the recent Presidential elections in Colombia, June 2010.

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Life after Oil: Cuba Can Teach Us How to Live Without Our Dirty Fossil Fuel Addiction
Jill Richardson - Alternet, 28 Jun 2010

The crisis in the Gulf is only the most recent reminder that we have to begin imagining a post-carbon future.

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(Portuguese) Água e Envelhecimento
Dr. Arnaldo Lichtenstein – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Jun 2010

Insisto: Não é brincadeira. Ao nascermos, 90% do nosso corpo é constituído de água. Na adolescência, isso cai para 70%. Na fase adulta, para 60%. Na terceira idade, que começa aos 60 anos, temos pouco mais de 50% de água. Isso faz parte do processo natural de envelhecimento. Mesmo desidratados, eles não sentem vontade de tomar água, pois os seus mecanismos de equilíbrio interno não funcionam muito bem. Portanto, de saída, os idosos têm menor reserva hídrica.

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Victory for Anti-Whaling Campaigners
Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor – The Independent, 28 Jun 2010

The controversial attempt to scrap the 24-year-old international moratorium on commercial whaling collapsed yesterday, to the delight of anti-whaling campaigners and the frustration of Japan, Norway and Iceland, the three countries which continue to hunt whales in defiance of world opinion.

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Among Traitors
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Jun 2010

When relations between the Soviet Union and China soured in the early 1960s, Khrushchev met Chu En Lai and told him,

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The Runaway General
Michael Hastings – Rolling Stone, 28 Jun 2010

Stanley McChrystal, Obama’s top commander in Afghanistan, has seized control of the war by never taking his eye off the real enemy: The wimps in the White House. The Rolling Stone article that triggered the storm.

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(Castellano) El Plan para Destruir a Cuba*
Heinz Dieterich – TRANSCEND Media Service, 28 Jun 2010

El plan para destruir a la Revolución Cubana es una combinación del modelo de subversión que se usó para terminar con el “socialismo realmente existente” en Polonia y en la Alemania socialista (RDA). Ese plan, que está en plena ejecución, cuenta con cuatro elementos: la crisis interna de Cuba, la campaña mundial de presión y chantaje, la liberalización mercantil suaversiva de Obama y, la Iglesia Católica.

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Is the U.S. Paying for Attacks on U.S. Troops?
Congressman Dennis Kucinich, 21 Jun 2010

After the New York Times reported that investigators in Afghanistan and Washington D.C. believe that private Afghan security companies, with close connections to the Karzai government and family, may have bribed insurgents to attack American and NATO convoy lines in order to demonstrate their companies’ value to the security of U.S. and NATO forces, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) released the following statement:

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(Castellano) El Milagro Económico Chino y la Educación del Partido
Heinz Dieterich – TRANSCEND Media Service, 21 Jun 2010

El milagro económico y de poder que ha producido el pueblo chino bajo la conducción del Partido Comunista se manifiesta de múltiples formas: un crecimiento económico anual del diez por ciento durante treinta años, sin ninguna recesión, ni siquiera durante la crisis capitalista mundial, y aumentos constantes de salarios que han sacado a cientos de millones de personas de la pobreza; el aumento de la expectativa de vida de 40.8 años en 1955, a 71.0 años en el 2005; la creación de una alianza militar defensiva (SCO) que abarca al 61% de Eurasia y la autosuficiencia bélica; la exitosa transición desde la experiencia de Mao al modelo actual, sin terrorismo de Estado y eliminación stalinista de los disidentes; la ascensión al rango de una de las dos potencias dominantes del sistema mundial de poder, sin que Occidente lo pudiera impedir; el desarrollo de algunas de las ciudades más bellas del mundo, como Suzhou y Beijing y, last but not least, el apoyo de 80% de los ciudadanos del país.

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Conflict Resolution
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 14 Jun 2010

A husband and wife were having dinner at a very fine restaurant when this absolutely stunning young woman comes over to their table, gives the husband a big open mouthed kiss, then says she’ll see him later and walks away. The wife glares at her husband and says,

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Turkey Goes From Pliable Ally to Thorn for U.S.
Sabrina Tavernise and Michael Slackman – The New York Times, 14 Jun 2010

For decades, Turkey was one of the United States’ most pliable allies, a strategic border state on the edge of the Middle East that reliably followed American policy. But recently, it has asserted a new approach in the region, its words and methods as likely to provoke Washington as to advance its own interests.

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End of Moratorium on Whaling Threatens More Blood in the Seas
Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor – The Independent, 7 Jun 2010

The moratorium on commercial whaling, one of the world’s major environmental achievements, is in danger of being abandoned after 24 years at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) which begins this week in Morocco.

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All At Sea
Yvonne Ridley - ICH, 7 Jun 2010

How many remember the hijacking of the Achille Lauro? One cannot attack a ship and then claim self-defence if the people on board resist the unlawful use of violence.

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A Plague upon the World: The USA is a “Failed State”
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts - ICH, 7 Jun 2010

Interview with Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary US Treasury, Associate Editor Wall Street Journal, Professor of Political Economy Center for Strategic and International Studies Georgetown University Washington DC.

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Oh, God!
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 7 Jun 2010

A very good-hearted young man came to the gates of heaven. He asked God, “Why have you brought me here so early?

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‘Operation Justified Vengeance’: Israeli Strike on Freedom Flotilla to Gaza is Part of a Broader Military Agenda
Michel Chossudovsky – Global Research, 7 Jun 2010

Washington was fully aware as to the nature as well as the likely consequences of the IDF naval operation in international waters, including the killings of civilians. There are indications that the decision was taken in consultation with Washington. Obama’s White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was in Israel in the week prior to the launching of the raid on the Freedom Flotilla.

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The Brazilian/Turkish Initiative: Rebalancing the World
Prof. Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 31 May 2010

Instead of welcoming this notable effort to reduce regional tensions, the Brazilian/Turkish initiative was immediately branded as an amateurish irrelevance by the American Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton. She insisted that the concerns about Iranian nuclear enrichment be left exclusively in the hands of the ‘major powers,’ and immediately rallied China and Russia (in addition to France and the United Kingdom) to support a fourth round of punitive sanctions that were to be presented to the UN Security Council in the near future.

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Managers
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 31 May 2010

A man is flying in a hot air balloon and realizes he is lost. He reduces height and spots a man down below. He lowers the balloon further and shouts:

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Why Humane Meat Is an Oxymoron
Michele Simon - Alternet, 24 May 2010

Niman then proceeded to bury herself even deeper in the ethical morass by making the astonishing claim that animals suffer a lot in the wild, since it’s such a dangerous world out there, and aren’t they better off under the care of humane, kind ranchers like her husband? This sounded chillingly like the arguments for slavery. You know, blacks were really much better off getting free room and board and they weren’t treated all that badly were they?

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So Much for ‘Understanding’
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 May 2010

The UN. conducted a worldwide survey asking “Would you please give your honest opinion about the solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?”

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Protecting the Perpetrators – Pedophiles and Popes: Doing the Vatican Shuffle
Michael Parenti – Common Dreams, 17 May 2010

The church seems determined to learn nothing from its transgressions, preoccupied as it is with avoiding lawsuits and bad publicity. Really Not All that Serious. First, pedophilia is not that serious if it involves only a few isolated and passing incidents. Second, an even more creepy way of downplaying the problem: child molestation is not all that damaging or that important. At worst, it is regrettable and unfortunate; it might greatly upset the child, but it certainly is not significant enough to cause unnecessary scandal and ruin the career of an otherwise splendid padre…. The damage done to sexual victims continues to go unnoticed: the ensuing years of depression, drug addiction, alcoholism, panic attacks, sexual dysfunction, and even mental breakdown and suicide-all these terrible aftereffects of child rape seem to leave popes and bishops more or less unruffled.

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Finance 202: How We Became Debt Slaves (And Learned to Love It)
Gordon Arnaut - ICH, 17 May 2010

Right now, the US Congress is holding hearings about bank wrongdoing. It is very entertaining kabuki theatre, but nothing will change. The Goldman chief (thief?) and his cohorts may take a bit of a grilling, but behind the scenes his bagmen are funneling millions of dollars into the campaign trunks of every representative, senator (or likely hopeful) in the land.

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Racist Joke
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 17 May 2010

A crowded lifeboat in the ocean got into a storm, the waves got higher and higher, and the boat was in danger of sinking.

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The Rebirth of Regulation
Robert Reich – TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 May 2010

What do oil giant BP, the mining company Massey Energy, and Goldman Sachs have in common? They’re all big firms involved in massive plunder. BP’s oil spill is already one of the biggest and most damaging in American history. Massey’s mine disaster, claiming the lives of 29 miners, is one of the worst in recent history. Goldman’s alleged fraud is but a part of the largest financial meltdown in 75 years.

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Japanese
Dietrich Fischer - TRANSCEND Media Service, 10 May 2010

A Japanese airline stewardess told the passengers on landing…

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Colombia: State Terror in the Name of Peace
Prof. James Petras - ICH, 10 May 2010

The first casualty of state terror is the corruption of language, the invention of euphemisms, where words mean their opposite and slogans cover great crimes: There is no longer a world consensus that condemns crimes against humanity. This is because mass murder and assassinations secure investor ‘confidence’, because Indians are dispossessed so the mines can be exploited; oil workers disappear so the petroleum will flow; and the international financial press praises the success of el Presidente for “pacifying the country”.

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Tony Blair, Very Close to Being Indicted for War Crimes
Prof. Michel Chossudovsky – Global Research, 3 May 2010

While on a speaking engagement in Malaysia organized by “Success Resources Company”, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was the object of an articulate protest movement demanding his indictment for war crimes. This was no ordinary protest. Tony Blair has been accused of war crimes in a legal initiative led by the country’s former Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad.

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Stingy
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 3 May 2010

A beggar walked up to a well‑dressed woman shopping on Fifth Avenue in New York and said,

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The Palestinians Are Winning the Legitimacy War: Will It Matter?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service, 26 Apr 2010

A Palestinian victory in the legitimacy war with Israel would not necessarily produce the desired political results. It is vital that the Palestinians exercise “patience, resolve, leadership and vision, as well as sufficient pressure” if they are to win their just rights.

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Bears vs. Hunters
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 26 Apr 2010

Two Canadian hunters were surprised by a bear. They began to run away from him.

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From Church Bulletins
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service, 19 Apr 2010

“The outreach committee has visited every family that is not afflicted with a church.”

“Don’t let worry kill you–let the church help.”

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Israeli Public’s Support for Dismantling Most Settlements Has Risen to a Five-Year High
Alvin Richman, World Public Opinion – TRANSCEND Media Service, 19 Apr 2010

A survey of the Israeli general public and Israeli settlers taken in early March shows three-fifths of the Israeli public (60%) support “dismantling most of the settlements in the territories as part of a peace agreement with the Palestinians.”

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U.S. Soldiers From WikiLeaks ‘Collateral Murder’ Video Apologize
ICH - TRANSCEND Media Service, 19 Apr 2010

Two former soldiers from the Army unit responsible for the Wikileaks “Collateral Murder” incident have written an open-letter of “Reconciliation and Responsibility” to those injured in the July 2007 attack, in which U.S. forces wounded two children and killed over a dozen people, including the father of those children and two Reuters employees.

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Israel: An Outpost of Empire
Michael Fiorentino – Socialist Worker, 19 Apr 2010

Israel’s sense of impunity knows no limits, writes Michael Fiorentino, who recently returned from a two-month stay in the occupied West Bank.

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LEAKED VIDEO SHOWS CIVILIAN KILLINGS IN IRAQ, SIGNIFIES GROWING POWER OF INDEPENDENT WEB JOURNALISM
Brett Michael Dykes, Yahoo! News – TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 Apr 2010

When a nonprofit group this week released video footage, leaked via a source in the Pentagon, showing a 2007 U.S. helicopter attack on a group of civilians in Baghdad, the clip unleashed a viral online sensation and ignited an intense debate about the conduct of U.S. forces in Iraq. But the simple fact of the video’s release also reflects the ongoing revolution in how news gets produced and published.

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INTERPRETER
Dietrich Fischer - TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 Apr 2010

To attend the meeting of the communist international, the Tanzanian delegate, the only communist in Tanzania, left six months early.

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FORGETFULNESS
Dietrich Fischer - TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Apr 2010

An elderly man went for his annual checkup to the doctor. After examining him, the doctor said, "I have two bad news for you. The first is that you have cancer." The patient asked, "And what is the second bad news?" The doctor said, "You have Alzheimer’s disease." The man said, "It could be worse, […]

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THE TOXIC 100 AIR POLLUTERS
Profs. Michael Ash and James K. Boyce – TRANSCEND Media Service, 5 Apr 2010

The Political Economy Research Institute released today [Mar 31 2010] a report identifying the  top 100 corporate air polluters, including  environmental justice report cards.Researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst today released the Toxic 100 Air Polluters, an updated list of the top corporate air polluters in the […]

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NOTES ON THE STATE OF CAPITAL
Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan – Dissident Voice, 28 Mar 2010

Sean Starrs claims that we need to discard our notion of the ‘state of capital’. The gist of his argument is simple enough. Capitalist societies, he says, involve a myriad of power relations, many of them very important. These relationships, although often linked to the logic of capital, are distinct from that logic and therefore […]

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WHALING: THE GREAT BETRAYAL
Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor – The Independent, 23 Mar 2010

Outrage as Secret Deal Set to Sweep Away International MoratoriumThe moratorium on commercial whaling, one of the environmental movement’s greatest achievements, looks likely to be swept away this summer by a new international deal being negotiated behind closed doors. The new arrangement would legitimise the whaling activities of the three countries which have continued to […]

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MONKEY BUSINESS ALRIGHT
Dietrich Fischer - TRANSCEND Media Service, 22 Mar 2010

Once upon a time a man appeared in a village and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each. The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and, as supply started to diminish, the villagers […]

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THE DANGER OF A SINGLE STORY
Chimamanda Adichie, 18 Mar 2010

Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding. In Nigeria, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel Half of a Yellow […]

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CHILDREN
Dietrich Fischer, 15 Mar 2010

    Scouts are supposed to do at least one good deed every day.  A scout master asked three little scouts at camp in the evening, "What good deed did you do today?" The first boy replied, "I helped an old lady cross the street." "Excellent," the scout master said. "And what did you do?’ he […]

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SHARING
Dietrich Fischer, 8 Mar 2010

A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin, 5, and Ryan, 3.  The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake.  Their mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson.  "If Jesus were sitting here, He would say ‘Let my brother have the first pancake, I can wait.’"  Kevin turned to […]

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EINSTEIN
Dietrich Fischer, 1 Mar 2010

    Albert Einstein and some friends visited Niels Bohr in Copenhagen.  They saw a horseshoe hanging on his door and teased him, "Are you superstitious?  Do you really believe that this brings you good luck?"  "Of course not," he teased back, "but I have heard that it even helps people who don’t believe in it." […]

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EFFICIENCY
Dietrich Fischer, 23 Feb 2010

    During the French revolution, a doctor, a lawyer and an engineer were sentenced to be beheaded by the guillotine.  The executioner asked the doctor, "Do you want to lie down face up or face down?"  "Face up," he said.  "Blindfold or no blindfold?" the executioner asked.  "No blindfold," the doctor said.  He lay down […]

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THINKING FORWARD
Michael Albert - NLP, 21 Feb 2010

NLP talks to Michael Albert, co-founder of Z Magazine, ZNet and South End Press, about complementary holism, Participatory Economics and an alternative to capitalism.1. Could you outline for us what the theory of complementary holism, is?Very briefly, it is a way of organizing one’s thoughts, you might say, when considering matters of history and society. […]

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TWO GOOD ONES
Dietrich Fischer, 16 Feb 2010

Bumper Sticker of the Year: Be Nice to America or We’ll Bring Democracy to Your Country A mental patient believed he was a mouse.  His psychiatrist patiently explained to him that he was a human being, not a mouse.  Finally he believed it, and the psychiatrist told him, "You are now cured, you can go […]

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WHAT DO EMPIRES DO?
Prof. Michael Parenti – Common Dreams, 14 Feb 2010

When I wrote my book Against Empire in 1995, as might be expected, some of my U.S. compatriots thought it was wrong of me to call the United States an empire. It was widely believed that U.S. rulers did not pursue empire; they intervened abroad only out of self-defense or for humanitarian rescue operations or […]

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EUROPE’S FIVE “UNDECLARED NUCLEAR WEAPONS STATES”
Michel Chossudovsky – Global Research, 13 Feb 2010

Are Turkey, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands and Italy Nuclear Powers? According to a recent report, former NATO Secretary-General George Robertson confirmed that Turkey possesses 40-90 "Made in America" nuclear weapons at the Incirlik military base.(en.trend.az/)  Does this mean that Turkey is a nuclear power? "Far from making Europe safer, and far from producing a less […]

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SOMALIA: HOW COLONIAL POWERS DROVE A COUNTRY INTO CHAOS
Gregoire Lalieu & Michel Collon, interviewing Mohamed Hassan, 11 Feb 2010

Somalia had every reason to succeed: an advantageous geographical situation, oil, ores and only one religion and one language for the whole territory; a rare phenomenon in Africa.  Somalia could have been a great power in the region. But the reality is completely different: famine, wars, lootings, piracy, bomb attacks. How did this country sink? […]

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THE HUMANITARIAN MYTH
Richard Seymour – Socialist Worker, 11 Feb 2010

The author of The Liberal Defense of Murder analyzes the propaganda manufactured to justify U.S. actions in Haiti after the earthquake.WITHIN DAYS of Haiti suffering an earthquake registering 7.0 on the Richter scale, the U.S. government had sent thousands of 82nd Airborne troops and Marines, alongside the super-carrier USS Carl Vinson. By this Sunday, a […]

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CHOOSING A FUTURE
Dietrich Fischer, 9 Feb 2010

An old country preacher had a teenage son, and it was getting time the boy should give some thought to choosing a profession. Like many young men, the boy didn’t really know what he wanted to do, and he didn’t seem too concerned about it. One day, while the boy was away at school, his […]

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DOGS
Dietrich Fischer, 7 Feb 2010

    Inspector Cluzeau stood at the door of a house with a lady and a dog.  He asked the lady, "Does your dog bite?"  She said no.  He entered, and the dog bit him.  He told the lady, "But you said your dog does not bite!"  She replied, "This is not MY dog." **************    […]

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FULL-COURT PRESS: THE “FOUR HORSEMEN” CALL FOR A NUCLEAR WEAPONS SPENDING SURGE
Darwin BondGraham, Will Parrish and Nicholas Ian Robinson, 3 Feb 2010

In the December edition of Z Magazine we published a lengthy feature examining the new politics of "anti-nuclear nuclearism," a rhetoric whereby hawkish elites vaguely tout the goal of "disarmament" in order to actually boost nuclear weapons spending and advance a long-term, militarized, pro-nuclear vision. We focused in on the Hoover Institution’s pivotal role in […]

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THE TERROR CARD: FEAR IS THE KEY TO OBEDIENCE
Rev. Richard Skaff - Global Research, 31 Jan 2010

The Terrorism Industrial Complex (TIC)Webster’s dictionary defines terrorism as the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion. [1].  However, the United States code defined terrorism as “(An) act of terrorism means an activity that (A) involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life that is a violation of the […]

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BY THE WAY…
Dietrich Fischer, 28 Jan 2010

When President Nixon proposed voluntary restraints on wage and price increases to fight inflation, John Kenneth Galbraith mocked, "I hope the next step will be voluntary taxes.  I will be the first not to pay them." John Kenneth Galbraith called Reaganomics "horse and sparrow economics": If you feed enough oats to the horses, some of […]

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WHY SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION IS NOT A JOB FOR THE MARKET
Michael Edwards – Open Democracy, 26 Jan 2010

In 2007, I experienced one of those fork-in-the-road moments that seem to occur when you least expect them. It was another day at the office, sifting through e-mails in the Ford Foundation’s glass palace in Manhattan, where I worked as one of the organization’s six directors. As usual, half of my inbox was filled by […]

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SAVE THE ELEPHANT: IVORY TRADING IS SET TO RESUME
Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor – The Independent, 26 Jan 2010

Britain urged to oppose demands from Tanzania and Zambia to lift ban on tusk sales / Conservationists fear the move would intensify slaughter of elephantsTwo African countries are trying to open a new breach in the worldwide ivory trade ban, which conservationists fear could lead to more African elephants being slaughtered by poachers. Environmental campaigners […]

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