Having now read several books about the Armenian Genocide, I approach each book more as a chance to remember what I've already learned about the Genocide than to learn something new. But in the last book I read, I learned something that kicked me right in the gut: that American economic interests in the oil fields in Mosul, Iraq in the 1920s helped ( Read more... )

AE: But Invisible Children has taken an obscure topic and turned it into tens of millions of hits on YouTube. A small country in East Africa has been thrust into the spotlight - as opposed to the centre of popular attention focusing on a viral video starring a popstar on drugs. Surely, this is a good thing?FM: Letting people know about violations ( Read more... )

I just sent the following email to my Congressman. Somehow I doubt he'll actually reply, but this needed to be said.

Dear Mr. Harris,

In response to my email stating that I do not support HR 3, you stated:

"I feel that taxpayers who believe abortion is wrong should not have their federal tax dollars used to pay for abortions."
As a Quaker and a ( Read more... )

Two diplomatic sources at the United Nations independently confirmed that Washington, via Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, gave the go-ahead for Saudi Arabia to invade Bahrain and crush the pro-democracy movement in their neighbor in exchange for a "yes" vote by the Arab League for a no-fly zone over Libya - the main rationale that led to United ( Read more... )

Iran, reacting to the cutoff of U.S. aid to the Lebanese military, told Lebanese officials it would make up the potential $100-million loss, the Los Angeles Times reports. The promise came after disclosures that Rep. Berman, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Lowey, chair of the Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations ( Read more... )

Poll

[EDIT: For those curious, this question came as a result of this post of a friend's of mine... but please don't flood his post with comments. :) ]

So, question: why not allow everyone access to Medicare? Since Medicare already covers people with expensive conditions (elderly and disabled), wouldn't increasing the number of recipients actually increase its funding (since the new recipients would likely be healthier than the current ones)?

Thoughts.

This pretty much covers everything. As far as I can tell, there are really only two options: require health insurance companies to cover everyone (thus increasing premiums for everyone) or have a government-run option (thus increasing taxes for everyone). Either way, people are going to be paying for it. I'd rather have the money go to the ( Read more... )

The agreement, which was reached between Sen. Baucus, Administration officials, and the nation’s pharmaceutical companies, will ultimately reduce the price of prescription drugs by half for millions of America’s seniors. As part of the upcoming health care reform legislation, drug manufacturers that participate in Medicare Part D will either pay a ( Read more... )

"I will participate in the demonstrations tomorrow. Maybe they will turn violent. Maybe I will be one of the people who is going to get killed. I'm listening to all my favorite music. I even want to dance to a few songs. I always wanted to have very narrow eyebrows. Yes, maybe I will go to the salon before I go tomorrow! There are a few great ( Read more... )