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Putting Faith On Trial: Is Religion a Force For Good Or Evil? : interview with renowned atheist Richard Dawkins December 23, 2012 " Al Jazeera " --  Fanaticism, fundamentalism, superstition and ignorance. Religion is getting a bad press these days. Much of the conflict in the world, from the Middle East to Nigeria and Myanmar, is often blamed on religion. But what are the alternatives? Adolf Hitler was an atheist. Communism under Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot or Mao Zedong banned religion, but also massacred millions. And science brought incredible and amazing advances, but also pollution and the atomic bomb. A critic of religious dogmatism, Professor Richard Dawkins revolutionised genetics in 1976 with the publication of The Selfish Gene , which explained how evolution takes place at the genetic level. He has since written 12 more bestsell...

The Ultimate Logic of a Society Built on Mass Murder The Ultimate Logic of a Society Built on Mass Murder It’s not a sudden madness, but a long history of mass murder come full circle. By Glen Ford December 21, 2012 " Information Clearing House " - As a native-born American, I grew up watching cowboy and Indian shoot-em-ups in which the highlight of the movie was when the white guys in the circled wagon train shot the Indians off their horses until all the red men were dead, and very silent. Indians didn’t do a lot of screaming in pain when they were shot; they just expired. Same thing with buck-toothed Japanese, line after line of them, charging into U.S. machine guns, falling instantly silent and dead. It was somehow quite clean, almost antiseptic, these cinematic rituals of death, all staged for the broadest popular consumption to demonstrat...

Resisting Genocide: Syria, North Korea, and Cuba Resisting Genocide: Syria, North Korea, and Cuba By Gearóid Ó Colmáin December 21, 2012 " Information Clearing House " -   As NATO and Gulf Co-operation Council terrorists persist in their attempt to destroy the Syrian Arab Republic with car bombs, torture, beheadings and mayhem, the Syrian state has still shown no evidence of imminent collapse. Russia has sent 5 warships to the Mediterranean. China has continued to condemn, albeit with extreme diplomacy, NATO’s interference; Venezuela has offered oil to help cope with Western sanctions; the Syrian financial budget has been decided for 2013; restaurants and cafes continue to open for business in Damascus and normal bilateral diplomatic and trade relations continue to exist between Syria and most of the world’s peace-loving countries...

So now we have it: what appears to be hard, irrefutable evidence of Rupert Murdoch 's ultimate and most audacious attempt – thwarted, thankfully, by circumstance – to hijack America's democratic institutions on a scale equal to his success in kidnapping and corrupting the essential democratic institutions of Great Britain through money, influence and wholesale abuse of the privileges of a free press. In the American instance, Murdoch's goal seems to have been nothing less than using his media empire – notably  Fox News  – to stealthily recruit, bankroll and support the presidential candidacy of General  David Petraeus  in the 2012 election.

Muslim Brotherhood claims charter 'approved' - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

Syrian Rebels Set Up ‘Religious Police’ Around Aleppo -- News from Antiwar.com Saudi Arabia’s harsh  Police of Vice and Virtue seem  to be setting up shop in northern Syria, with locals reporting that rebel forces have establish Saudi-style religious police around the outskirts of Aleppo, and at least one high-ranking member of the Saudi version was seen in a video taking part.

Fifty-five drowned off Somali coast - Africa | IOL News | IOL.co.za

Chuck Hagel’s Record on Terrorism, Israel, Iran -- News from Antiwar.com Former GOP senator Chuck Hagel is rumored to be a leading candidate to be nominated as Secretary of Defense by the Obama administration, and his voting record is  eliciting outrage  on the right for being insufficiently hawkish on terrorism and insufficiently pro-Israel.

US: No signs Syria has moved on chemical w... JPost - Middle East

Bank Pays Bribe To Avoid Prosecution HSBC fine: what does it take for a bank to get prosecuted? By Nils Pratley December 11, 2012 " The Guardian " - -  Is HSBC's $1.9bn (£1.2bn) fine enormous or a drop in the ocean? Well, it's a record for the offence of money laundering and breaking sanctions, which could be said to underline the gravity of the bank's actions. On the other hand, the sum represents about four weeks' earnings given the bank's pre-tax profits of $21.9bn last year. The financial pain is easily bearable. Indeed, the steady upward progress of HSBC 's share price since the scandal exploded in July was unaffected on Tuesday morning. Shareholders like the idea the affair is settled and they trust that chief executive Stuart Gulliver's new-broom regime won't fall foul of the US department ...

Why the Bible doesn't give Israel a claim to the West Bank | The Electronic Intifada Having a passport stamped with the names Judea and Samaria reminds me of a trip my family made to Disneyworld, where I got a passport stamped Neverland.  That day I met Peter Pan and Wendy. Getting my passport stamped for the West Bank these days, I can hope to stand before the graves of Biblical characters in Samaria and Judea. What actually can we glean about the area of Samaria from the Hebrew Scriptures? Samaria was a region in the land of Israel with geographical limits that were never clearly defined in the Bible. Originally it was the territory of the tribe of Ephraim and half tribe of Manasseh: its eastern boundary was the Jordan River, the western boundary was the Mediterranean coast. Not surprising since natural boundaries, such as mountains, rivers, deserts, or lakes formed boundaries long before they were hand-drawn by the winners of wars. After the campaign of Tiglath-Pi...

Thanks for the Warnings, Israel by Johnny Barber -- Antiwar.com I have been in Gaza for five days now, and I am having difficulty understanding the eight-day war and the subsequent ceasefire. Let me explain the difficulty I am having. The Israeli Offensive Forces insist they protect civilians in Gaza, only targeting terrorists. They have several methods to protect innocent civilians. One method is to call the civilians on the phone; another method is to drop leaflets telling them to flee for their lives, as an attack is imminent. During the latest offensive, Israeli dropped leaflets in the rural areas telling people to flee to the city. In Gaza City, leaflets were dropped warning people to flee to the rural areas. A new, ingenious method they use to protect civilians is to drop “loud, non-lethal bombs” on a home as a warning for the inhabitants as to what will come. They even have a name for this warning. They call it “roof tapping.” Then anywhere from three minutes to 20 minutes pass...

Thanks for the Warnings, Israel by Johnny Barber -- Antiwar.com I have been in Gaza for five days now, and I am having difficulty understanding the eight-day war and the subsequent ceasefire. Let me explain the difficulty I am having. The Israeli Offensive Forces insist they protect civilians in Gaza, only targeting terrorists. They have several methods to protect innocent civilians. One method is to call the civilians on the phone; another method is to drop leaflets telling them to flee for their lives, as an attack is imminent. During the latest offensive, Israeli dropped leaflets in the rural areas telling people to flee to the city. In Gaza City, leaflets were dropped warning people to flee to the rural areas. A new, ingenious method they use to protect civilians is to drop “loud, non-lethal bombs” on a home as a warning for the inhabitants as to what will come. They even have a name for this warning. They call it “roof tapping.” Then anywhere from three minutes to 20 minutes pass...