Predictably, a front-page Wall Street Journal story Oct. 25 bashes native plant advocate Richard Halsey of the California Chaparral Institute as a culprit behind the devastating Southern California fires that have left half a million displaced. The article also approvingly… Read moreEcology scapegoated in Southern California disaster
The “Old Order” Amish of the Pennsylvania Dutch country still refuse to use automobiles. Maybe they have the right idea. From AP, Oct. 22: INDIANAPOLIS — A tire blowout may have caused a van carrying passengers from an Amish community… Read moreWHY WE FIGHT
This Patrick Cockburn report is entitled “Baghdad may be unable to stop attacks by PKK fighters,” but the more relevant question may be whether the regional Kurdish government which is the real power in northern Iraq has any real desire… Read moreDoes Baghdad have power to crack down on PKK?
We’ve already had to warn the heroic Buddhist dissidents of Burma and colonized Uighur people of China’s far west against allowing themselves to be exploited as propaganda fodder by the Bush White House. Now it seems we have to warn… Read moreDalai Lama pawn in Bush’s oil wars?
President Bush already has called the GWOT “World War III.” Now he again invokes the phrase—but in a more conventional sense, arguing that it looms in the future if Iran devlops the atomic bomb. Of course, a pre-emptive attack to… Read moreBush invokes World War III —again
Crude oil rose above $89 a barrel for the first time this week as the US dollar declined to a record low against the euro. Analysts say the market is reacting to concerns over Turkish military incursions into northern Iraq…. Read moreMontana to Kurdistan: global oil prices react
From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Oct. 14, links added: Vernon Bellecourt, a longtime leader of the American Indian Movement, died Saturday. He was 75. Bellecourt died at Abbott Northwestern Hospital of complications of pneumonia, said his brother, Clyde Bellecourt, a founder… Read moreAmerican Indian Movement leader Vernon Bellecourt dead at 75
On Oct. 14, Iranian authorities arrested Emaddedin Baghi, a prominent activist who who heads the Committee for the Defense of Prisoners’ Rights and has campaigned against the death penalty “He is charged with spreading propaganda against the regime and publishing… Read moreIran arrests anti-death penalty activist
Mexico’s Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), now convening an international forum on indigenous rights at Vicam, Sonora, are protesting comments by Supreme Court Justice Aguirre Anguiano dismissing the rebel movement as “folklore.” The statement came in a case brought by… Read moreMexico: high court justice dismisses EZLN as “folklore” group
From NY1, Oct. 15: Toddler Dies In Livery Cab Accident In East Harlem A two-year-old child was killed in a car accident at the corner of 111th Street and Fifth Avenue in East Harlem Friday afternoon. Police say a livery… Read moreWHY WE FIGHT
Forgive our cynicism but it smells to us like a quick cash-in (albeit a year late, so as not to seem unseemly) on the Da Vinci Code hype. The official website of the Holy See has a link right on… Read moreVatican opens Knights Templar archives
From BBC News via Sufi News & World Report, Oct. 11: More than 130 Muslim scholars have written to Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian leaders urging greater understanding between the two faiths. The letter says that world peace could… Read moreMuslim scholars reach out to Vatican
