Blog Archives
Why I’m fed up with free speech fundamentalists
Source: huffingtonpost.co.uk
By: Mehdi Hasan
Dear liberal pundit,
You and I didn’t like George W Bush. Remember his puerile declaration after 9/11 that “either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists”? Yet now, in the wake of another horrific terrorist attack, you appear to have updated Dubya’s slogan: either you are with free speech… or you are against it. Either vous êtes Charlie Hebdo… or you’re a freedom-hating fanatic.
I’m writing to you to make a simple request: please stop. You think you’re defying the terrorists when, in reality, you’re playing into their bloodstained hands by dividing and demonising. Us and them. The enlightened and liberal west v the backward, barbaric Muslims. The massacre in Paris on 7 January was, you keep telling us, an attack on free speech. The conservative former French president Nicolas Sarkozy agrees, calling it “a war declared on civilisation”. So, too, does the liberal-left pin-up Jon Snow, who crassly tweeted about a “clash of civilisations” and referred to “Europe’s belief in freedom of expression”.
Study: U.S. regime has killed 20-30 million people since World War Two
Source: countercurrents.org
By: James A. Lucas
After the catastrophic attacks of September 11 2001 monumental sorrow and a feeling of desperate and understandable anger began to permeate the American psyche. A few people at that time attempted to promote a balanced perspective by pointing out that the United States had also been responsible for causing those same feelings in people in other nations, but they produced hardly a ripple. Although Americans understand in the abstract the wisdom of people around the world empathizing with the suffering of one another, such a reminder of wrongs committed by our nation got little hearing and was soon overshadowed by an accelerated “war on terrorism.”
But we must continue our efforts to develop understanding and compassion in the world. Hopefully, this article will assist in doing that by addressing the question “How many September 11ths has the United States caused in other nations since WWII?” This theme is developed in this report which contains an estimated numbers of such deaths in 37 nations as well as brief explanations of why the U.S. is considered culpable.
Russell Brand: ‘I don’t trust politicians & corporations in this country’ (Video)
Russell Brand has spoken to Newsnight about his “alternative to corporate hegemony”. Presenter Evan Davis quizzed the comic about his ownership proposals for General Motors but was told it was a “silly administrative quibble”.
Drone strikes: Obama’s torture technique?
Source: theconversation.com
By: Jeff Bachman
On November 24, two weeks before the Senate Intelligence Committee released its “torture report,” Reprieve, a UK-based human rights NGO, published the results of its latest investigation into President Obama’s drone strike program. While Obama was preparing for the inevitable release of the Senate’s report which provided the most extensive insight yet into the CIA’s use of torture during the Bush administration, Reprieve provided insights of its own into the Obama administration’s equally disturbing targeted drone assassination program.
Latest Issue Of ISIS Magazine Comes With More Fearmongering (Video)
Every month, the Islamic State group (aka ISIS or ISIL) releases a magazine. In their latest issue, the group calls for slavery, quotes former President George W. Bush and comes with plenty of Obama criticism.
RELATED: HAMZA YUSUF: THE CRISIS OF ISIS – A PROPHETIC PREDICTION (VIDEO)
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The Geopolitics of World War 3 (Video)
The real reason Russia and Syria are being targeted right now.
9/11: A Conspiracy (Video)
Everything you ever wanted to know about the 9/11 conspiracy theory in under 5 minutes. Transcript and sources: http://www.corbettreport.com/?p=2594
Spotted Bush Snake fights huge Gecko (Video)
A 1m long SPOTTED BUSH SNAKE (?) (non-venomous) was seen before lunchtime in the rafters of the dining area at Zingela bush camp beside the Tugela River, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, on Saturday 12 January 2013. The snake discovered a very large and battle-worn Wahlberg’s Velvet gecko (Homopholis wahlbergii)(which I had seen a few times in the area previously).
After attacking the gecko in the rafters, the snake and its prey fell to the floor. It’s at that moment, with the gecko retaliating, that I arrived with my movie camera. The whole event lasted about 40 minutes. This is a very tightly-edited, 10-minute movie of the event with most of the battle for survival by the gecko shown, and a VERY shortened conclusion. The retaliation of the gecko was both a natural reaction (as geckos do) as well as highly intelligent by clamping the snake’s mouth closed, and by holding the snake behind its head. Don’t ignore the agility of the gecko to avoid being bitten on its head.
(The snake has variously been thought to be a Philothamnus hoplogaster [green water snake] or a P. natalensis [Natal green snake] or *even* a P. angolensis [Angola green snake] and thought probably a Philothamnus semivariegatus [spotted bush snake]!) Snake specialist, Lynn Raw, suggests it is a Western Natal Green Snake [Philothamnus natalensis occidentalis] because “The iris colour in a bush snake is orangey-red-brown while this one is dark and greenish.” The gecko is thought to be very far south of its normal range – St Lucia – but the Tugela valley is very warm and suitable for this gecko.)
More video’s…
PASS THE KNOWLEDGE (LIGHT & LIFE) 