SPOTLIGHT
Bloodbath in Mexico: Drug Prohibition Is to Blame for Thousands of Mexican and Now American Deaths by Tony Newman
When we think about wars happening in the world right now, Iraq and Afghanistan jump to mind. But there is war in our backyard that can match the violence anywhere in the world, and that is the Drug War in Mexico.
Mexico President Felipe Calderon launched a full-scale military assault against the drug traffickers in his country as soon as he took office in December 2006. Three years later, the "surge" against the cartels has led to Mexico spinning out of control with jaw-dropping violence -- with no meaningful impact on the export and availability of drugs. More than twice the number of Mexicans have died in these three years -- 15,000 -- than have Americans in both Iraq and Afghanistan combined after more than seven years.
LATEST
Last Words by George Carlin with Tony Hendra by Michael E. Ross
The Word According to George
Writing the book that caps your 50 years in the entertainment business, a book you know will probably serve as your valedictory address, can be a very liberating experience. You get to settle old scores, to set the record straight. You get to define the universe, or at least your universe, on your own terms.
In a New York State of Mind by Dan Gaymer
Jim rubbed his temple with his left hand, squeezing the cardboard coffee cup. The acrid smell of the cheap black coffee rose into his nostrils, the rising and falling inside the cup as he applied a tiny amount of pressure and then slowly released. The coffee pulsed like the throbbing pain inside of his skull, as if someone had smacked him upside the head with a two by four.
NEWS
Bill Maher, You're Wrong on Education by John Legend
HBO Real Time host Bill Maher criticized President Barack Obama’s decision to support a Rhode Island superintendent who fired every single teacher at a failing high school, forcing them to reapply to their jobs. “New Rule: Let's not fire the teachers when students don't learn—let's fire the parents,” Maher said, arguing that teachers are scapegoats for the failings of society. “Isn't it convenient that once again it turns out that the problem isn't us, and the fix is something that doesn't require us to change our behavior or spend any money?” he asked, alleging, “According to all the studies, it doesn't matter what teachers do.”
Now, in a Daily Beast exclusive, education philanthropist, singer, and longtime Obama supporter John Legend is hitting back, alleging that Maher—on whose show he has appeared—fundamentally misunderstands the issue.
Hey Bill,
You know I deeply respect you and the issues you cover. I’m a big fan of your show. I really enjoy being a guest there and would love to be invited back sometime. Now, I’m hoping this letter won’t close the door to that.
Israel Crackdown Puts Liberal Jews on the Spot by Chris Hedges
The Israeli government, its brutal war crimes in Gaza exposed in detail in the U.N. report by Justice Richard Goldstone, has implemented a series of draconian measures to silence and discredit dissidents, leading intellectuals and human rights organizations inside and outside Israel that are accused--often falsely--of assisting Goldstone's U.N. investigators. The government of Benjamin Netanyahu is attempting to shut down Israel's premier human rights organizations, including B'Tselem, the New Israel Fund (NIF) and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. It is busy expelling or excluding peace activists and foreign nationals from the Palestinian territories. The campaign, if left unchecked, will be as catastrophic for Palestinians as it will be for Israel.
Actor Stephen Baldwin Takes Christian Indoctrination to the Xtreme by Sarah Posner
Actor Stephen Baldwin has a message for the millennial generation: Jesus is cool, Jesus is rad, Jesus will kick your butt, Jesus will help you kick the butts of secular liberals. Yet while Baldwin seeks to be the hip new face of evangelicalism, promoting the Jesus of skateboarders and cool kids, beneath his radical chic is the ideology of the old men behind the Cold War-era John Birch Society and Christian Crusade.
Together with Christian activist and radio host Kevin McCullough, Baldwin launched a youth-targeted for-profit Christian media company, Xtreme Media, LLC, and the radio program Xtreme Radio with Stephen Baldwin and Kevin McCullough. The aim of Xtreme Media, according to Baldwin, is to create "a content reality we want to utilize to fire up the conservative movement to stand up and push back louder and more ferociously."
The Great Catholic Cover-Up by Christopher Hitchens
On March 10, the chief exorcist of the Vatican, the Rev. Gabriele Amorth (who has held this demanding post for 25 years), was quoted as saying that "the Devil is at work inside the Vatican," and that "when one speaks of 'the smoke of Satan' in the holy rooms, it is all true—including these latest stories of violence and pedophilia." This can perhaps be taken as confirmation that something horrible has indeed been going on in the holy precincts, though most inquiries show it to have a perfectly good material explanation.
Concerning the most recent revelations about the steady complicity of the Vatican in the ongoing—indeed endless—scandal of child rape, a few days later a spokesman for the Holy See made a concession in the guise of a denial. It was clear, said the Rev. Federico Lombardi, that an attempt was being made "to find elements to involve the Holy Father personally in issues of abuse." He stupidly went on to say that "those efforts have failed."
Recent comments_
47 weeks 6 days ago
48 weeks 1 day ago