Ireland: From Peter Cameron’s Pen, A Classic Is Born21 Nov 2007Peter Cameron is without question one of the finest contemporary American gay writers—yet his name is hardly a gay household world. If there is justice in this world, that will change with his enthralling new novel, “Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You,” just published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Weisbrot: Holocaust Denial, American Style21 Nov 2007Iranian President Ahmedinejad’s flirtation with those who deny the reality of the Nazi genocide has rightly been met with disgust. But another holocaust denial is taking place with little notice: the holocaust in Iraq.
Levy: What do you mean when you say ‘no’?21 Nov 2007(18/11/2007) A festive day for peace: Israel is planning to announce a freeze on construction in the settlements as compensation for refusing to discuss the core issues. The Palestinians are ecstatic at all the good-will gestures Israel is throwing their way.
Albert: Turkish Interview21 Nov 2007You suggest “participatory economics” against thesis which claims that there is no alternative to capitalism since the 1990’s. Why does an intellectual need to think about an alternative to capitalism and what does your model bring us for a better world? The argument that it is necessary to conceive and to then explicitly seek an alternative to capitalism has three big premises.
Ireland: A Bush Double-Cross on HIV Travel Ban20 Nov 2007The Bush administration is trying to pull a fast one—rushing through draconian proposed new regulations that will restrict even further the entry of HIV-positive people into to the US, just one year after having promised to ease them. table class=”MsoNormalTable” style=”mso-cellspacing: 0in; mso-table-lspace: 2.
Sagar: Nandigram: The Beating of Medha Patkar20 Nov 2007On 8 November when a mob of Communist Party of India (Marxist) supporters in West Bengal beat Medha Patkar, after dragging her out from a convoy headed to the troubled area of Nandigram, they bestowed a rare honour upon this brave woman.[i] p class=”MsoNormal” style=”margin: .
Zirin: Why is Imus back in the game?20 Nov 2007After a nine-month vacation, radio shock jock Don Imus will be back on the air in December. Perhaps you thought that Imus’ comments calling the Rutgers University women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hos” would have rendered him untouchable—that at best he would find a home in the outer banks of satellite radio? span style=”font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana; mso-bidi-font-famil.
Nikiforuk: Malignancies19 Nov 2007The secret history of the war on cancer By Devra Davis Basic Books, 505 pages, $33.50 p class=”MsoNo.
Cohn: Musharraf Plays Bush for a Fool19 Nov 2007Pakistan’s President General Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency on November 3rd after the Pakistani Supreme Court indicated it would overturn the results of an illegitimate election that would have extended Musharraf’s term as president. Musharraf quickly fired the Supreme Court justices who planned to rule against him.
Meyerson: What’s on the Line in the Writers’ Strike19 Nov 2007In its initial stages, the strike of television and screenwriters has generated so much lighthearted copy you could conclude, wrongly, that it’s fun for the whole family. On one entertainment news Web site, 3,000 “Battlestar Galactica” cultists, in Los Angeles for their convention, have pledged to join the picket line at Universal Studios on Friday.
Ben-Dor: Overcoming Zionism19 Nov 2007 Joel Kovel’s book written by a well-known American Jewish scholar and humanist is one of the most thought-provoking, multi-layered and consistent analysis of the situation in Palestine I came across. Its spirit is that of egalitarian inclusion and moderation and it is precisely this spirit that compliments the serious scholarship undertaken to back up his arguments.
Grossman: German Rail Strike Hits Hard19 Nov 2007Berlin—It’s the biggest labor struggle in years in Germany, and it’s not over yet! The locomotive engineers and other train personnel just closed down much of the railroad system for 62 hours for freight and 48 hours for passenger transportation and may do it again next week, possibly without the limited strike length used up till now. Unless the railroad company comes up with a new offer, they may close down municipal train service, long-distance passenger service, and freight transportation all at the same time, holding out as long as the railroad company stays stubborn.
Jacobs: Sitting On the Group W Bench-War and Arlo Guthrie’s Thanksgiving19 Nov 2007I first heard “Alice’s Restaurant” in 1968 on Washington DC’s underground radio station WHFS. The most memorable time I heard it was in May 1970 on the day after the military murders at Kent State when a friend read it in homeroom at the junior high I attended in Frankfurt, Germany.
solo: King of Spain mutant US President18 Nov 2007One can read too much into the unprecedented rude behaviour and abrupt departure of Juan Carlos, Bourbon King of Spain, during the recent Ibero-American summit in Santiago, Chile. Clearly, when he got up and left in the middle of Daniel Ortega’s lucid analysis of international relations, after first telling Hugo Chavez to shut his mouth, he was simply leaving in order to shape-shift discreetly back into George W.
Ali: Helping hand from Uncle Sam18 Nov 2007IT might have been possible, in different circumstances, to feel sorry for John Negroponte. The US deputy secretary of state’s weekend mission to Pakistan was never likely to bear fruit.
Lendman: Coup D’Etat Rumblings in Venezuela18 Nov 2007The Bush administration tried and failed three prior times to oust Hugo Chavez since its first aborted two-day coup attempt in April, 2002. Through FOIA requests, lawyer, activist and author Eva Golinger uncovered top secret CIA documents of US involvement that included an intricate financing scheme involving the quasi-governmental agency, National Endowment of Democracy (NED), and US Agency for International Development (USAID).
Raina: Reading Nandigram17 Nov 2007I recall a young member of the family who would snatch an Agatha Christie as someone was reading it, sift quickly to the last pages, find out who-done-it, hand the book back, and grin for days with the secret knowledge that the one reading the book did not yet have. Such are the joys of reading books from the wrong end.
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