In 1915, a mother’s protest against funneling children into war became the theme of a new American song, “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier.” Although the ballad attained great popularity, not everyone liked it. Theodore Roosevelt, a leading militarist of the era,...
As thousands of refugees wash up on the shores of Europe – over 107,000 in the last month – it is a scene of horror and misery untold. A truck load of 71 dead migrants was recently discovered in Austria: they had suffocated, and body fluids from their decomposing...
Since July 14 when the Vienna nuclear agreement between Iran and P5+1 – the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany – was announced, its opponents have been waging an all-out war against it. In particular, the same pundits who lied...
Since the start of the Canadian election campaign a series of posts have detailed the Harper Conservatives repeated abuse of power. The Tyee published "Harper, Serial Abuser of Power", which listed "70 Harper government assaults on democracy and the...
New evidence has now surfaced from former Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak that Israel came close to attacking Iran three times over the past few years – if you believe what major news media reported about the story. But you shouldn’t believe it. The...
Poor Burundi. This Vermont-sized African country has been put under a microscope by the world’s punditsphere and has been thrust onto the first stage of the media cycle as of late, ever since its incumbent president Pierre Nkurunziza (CNDD-FDD) decided to run for a...
Protests resumed again in several cities on Friday. The protest in Baghdad may have been the biggest one yet this year thanks to participation by Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s followers. Essentially, demonstrators demanded real change. Some complained that, so far,...
“May you live in interesting times” – that old (supposedly Chinese) curse seems to define the world today. “Interesting” is meant in the snarkish sense: it is a euphemism for unpleasant, or even intolerable, although in the present context I think a more appropriate...
