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POPSHeterosexual Ivy League Professor Kills Wife Since people are entertaining the idea that we should ban gay adoption because an allegedly gay man is accused of molesting his adopted son, I think it is only fair that we ask, in light of this incident, if we should ban marriages involving straight men, economists, or Ivy League professors.
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POPSAbnormal State Who demanded in every diplomatic encounter that the Security Council impose sanctions on Iran because of its nuclear program and punish Syria for smuggling weapons to Hezbollah, and then accused Iran and Syria of ignoring U.N. resolutions? And when, over Israel's objections, that very council passed Resolution 1860 calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, who proclaimed that it would not accept it and intended to continue fighting? The government of Israel, of course.
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POPSWhere is the outrage over bombing of Gaza university? ...Israel has tried to justify the bombing. An army spokeswoman told The Chronicle that the targeted buildings were used as “a research and development center for Hamas weapons, including Qassam rockets." … Islamic University officials deny the Israeli allegations. Yet even if there is some merit in them, it is common knowledge that practically all major American and Israeli universities are engaged in research and development of military applications and receive money from the Pentagon and defense corporations. Weapon development and even manufacturing have, unfortunately, become major projects at universities worldwide — a fact that does not justify bombing them.
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POPSJohn McCain met with Chilean Dictator with no preconditions At the time of the meeting, in the late afternoon of December 30, the U.S. Justice Department was seeking the extradition of two close Pinochet associates for an act of terrorism in Washington DC, the 1976 assassination of former ambassador to the US and former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier. The car bombing on Sheridan Circle in the U.S. capital was widely described at the time as the most egregious act of international terrorism perpetrated on U.S. soil by a foreign power.
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POPSIsrael's Front-Line Thugs The security forces are, of course, by no means scared to act when it suits them. Palestinian demonstrations are routinely put down with excessive force: rocks flung by pre-teens are countered with rubber bullets, tear gas, and – often – live and indiscriminate fire. But when it comes to clamping down on violence emanating from the settler community, a different set of rules apply, and the authorities' reeking hypocrisy is exposed as endemic to the way in which they view the different strands of Israeli society. Via Philip Weiss
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POPSMcCain 'jokes' about killing Iranians The joke : Sen. John McCain hasn't had good luck joking about Iran. But he tried it again Tuesday. Responding to a question about a survey that shows increased exports to Iran, mainly from cigarettes, McCain said, "Maybe thats a way of killing them." He quickly caught himself, saying "I meant that as a joke" as his wife, Cindy, poked him in the back.
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POPSIn defense of William Ayers But to call Ayers a "terrorist" and throw him in the Osama bin Laden pile is a reach for the moral high ground by the very people and political establishment that secretly carpet bombed Cambodia, murdering hundreds of thousands of civilians. ...Ayers is no martyr, and he's no role model. But he doesn't deserve to be the punching bag of the moral cretins who still celebrate lying wars of aggression and the pointless slaughter of untold thousands.
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POPSBush admin. should save Libyan dissident Upon his release, Eljahmi began speaking up for political reform in Libya. Within the month, Gadhafi had him back in prison, where he has been held, mostly incommunicado, since late March 2004. In all that time, there have been no more public mentions of Eljahmi's name from the White House. Gadhafi, meanwhile, has hit the jackpot as America's prime example of a rogue regime on rehab - presumably a case study for the likes of Iran and North Korea of how good life can get for tyrants if only they will forego an interest in nukes. Astride the oil wells of Libya, Gadhafi has enjoyed a parade of high-level visitors, including United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and he has been welcomed in Paris. This year, with no protest from the United States, Libya gained one of the 10 rotating seats on the U.N. Security Council. Last month, Rice treated the Libyan foreign minister to a personal tour of the White House.
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POPSChristian college denies tenure for objectivist historian In some respects, Mr. Lewis is an unlikely poster child for academic freedom. In his 2006 essay on Iran, he urged the U.S. military in war zones to threaten Muslim intellectuals with "immediate personal destruction" if they do not renounce political Islamism. And he often writes and speaks on behalf of the Ayn Rand Institute, whose leaders are famously insistent on enforcing fidelity to Rand's beliefs, as they see them. "We have to always make a judgment about things we put out, or things put out by people associated with us," says Onkar Ghate, dean of the Objectivist Academic Center, which is affiliated with the institute. "Are they going to be teaching, talking about, advocating Ayn Rand's ideas, or are they doing something else?"
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POPSBork files $1 million slip-and-fall lawsuit The present tort system poses dangers to interstate commerce not unlike those faced under the Articles of Confederation. Even if Congress would not, in 1789, have had the power to displace state tort law, the nature of the problem has changed so dramatically as to bring the problem within the scope of the power granted to Congress. Accordingly, proposals, such as placing limits or caps on punitive damages, or eliminating joint or strict liability, which may once have been clearly understood as beyond Congress's power, may now be constitutionally appropriate. I love it!
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POPSJustice Dept funding "john schools" This discrepancy between punishments for prostitutes and for johns is outrageous. I'd rather have prostitution be legalized, but if we're going to be jailing prostitutes, then johns ought to be given the same sentence--not a slap on the wrist.
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POPS'Never again' for Armenians too A Los Angeles Times op-ed written by Jewish progressives lamenting the role of Jewish organizations (the ADL, AJC, B'nai B'rith) opposing US Congressional recognition of the Armenian genocide.
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POPSCorporate hypocrisy on bankruptcy Corporate America has a message: bankruptcy is about moral depravity. It isn't about medical debt and job loss, not about ex-spouses who die or who run off. and it certainly isn't about anything the lenders might have done--like high fee mortgages with introductory teaser rates or credit cards with interest rates that quadruple when a customer is late paying another creditor.
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POPSHillary Clinton & The Bankruptcy Bill This is a disturbing story about Hillary Clinton and our system of governance. During the Clinton administration, a bill was wounding through Congress that would make it harder for individuals to declare bankruptcy. Hillary Clinton, as First Lady, summoned consumer finance expert Elizabeth Warren , who convinced Hillary that this bill was bad news. Hillary convinced her husband to reverse course and veto the bill. Fast forward to Hillary Clinton getting elected Senator from New York, and she has to vote on a similar bill. She, having been a beneficiary of campaign contributions from the consumer finance industry, votes for it --the same bill she knew was bad for debtors and fought against as First Lady. I put together this jetpack that quotes from two interviews with Elizabeth Warren about Hilary Clinton's actions regarding this bill.