TastesSightsSounds

35 Countries Where the U.S. Has Supported Fascists, Drug Lords and Terrorists The U.S. is backing Ukraine's extreme right-wing Svoboda party and violent neo-Nazis whose armed uprising paved the way for a Western-backed coup. Events in the Ukraine are giving us another glimpse through the looking-glass of U.S. propaganda wars against fascism, drugs and terrorism. The ugly reality behind the mirror is that the U.S. government has a long and unbroken record of working with fascists, dictators, druglords and state sponsors of terrorism in every region of the world in its elusive but relentless quest for unchallenged global power.   Behind a firewall of impunity and protection from the State Department and the CIA, U.S. clients and puppets have engaged in the worst crimes known to man, from murder and torture to coups and genocide. The trail of blood from this carnage and chaos leads directly back to the steps of the U.S. Capitol and the White House. As historian Gabriel Kolko ob

The trauma of apostasy in Muslim communities Walking away from religion is seldom easy. It can be psychologically difficult to lose one’s faith in God, emotionally painful to doubt the existence of life after death, and existentially trying to come to terms with the fact that there is nothing supernatural out there: no magical realms, no paranormal powers, no divine beings. Just us, this planet, the universe, and the unavoidably mind-blowing mystery of it all. However, when it comes to apostasy—the rejection of one’s religion—the personal loss of faith is actually often the least of one’s struggles. Much more worrying, awkward, and potentially damaging is the toll apostasy takes on one’s relationships with others. People who reject their religion often face strained relations—or worse— with spouses, parents, siblings, children, and friends. And this problem is particularly strong among contemporary Muslim communities. In his latest book, The Apostates: When Muslims Leave Isla

Really!  1. “… don’t throw stones in glass houses …” President Barack Obama used this at a speech where he was making his case for immigration reform. Its actual origin goes back to the days of Shakespeare, and has been stated in a number of different ways. However, there is no Bible verse that states this. 2. “Spare the rod, spoil the child.” Though this sounds much like a quote from the book of Proverbs, its known origin dates back to 1377 and is considered to be based on Proverbs 13:24, but does not appear in the Bible. William Langland’s The vision of William concerning Piers Plowman is the earliest recorded source of the adage. 3. Jonah swallowed by a whale This is one of the more controversial interpretations of the Bible, since the Old Testament book of Jonah states that a “great fish” swallowed Jonah. Yet in the New Testament book of Matthew it says he was “three days and three nights in the whale’s belly.” Neither the Hebrew language (Old Testament) nor the Green

The Best Map Ever Made of America’s Racial Segregation Last year, a pair of researchers from Duke University published a report with a bold title: “The End of the Segregated Century.” U.S. cities, the authors concluded, were less segregated in 2012 than they had been at any point since 1910. But less segregated does not necessarily mean integrated–something this incredible map makes clear in vivd color. The map, created by Dustin Cable at University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, is stunningly comprehensive. Drawing on data from the 2010 U.S. Census, it shows one dot per person, color-coded by race. That’s 308,745,538 dots in all–around 7 GB of visual data. It isn’t the first map to show the country’s ethnic distribution, nor is it the first to show every single citizen, but it is the first to do both, making it the most comprehensive map of race in America ever created. This is the most comprehensive map of race in America ever created. White people a

Case Study 30, August 2015, Melbourne The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse final report on Working with Children Checks, which was released by the Government on Monday, 17 August 2015 is now available on the Website - https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au Executive summary In Australia, each state and territory has its own scheme for conducting background checks for people seeking to engage in child related work. These schemes, commonly known as Working with Children Checks (WWCCs) help ensure the right people are chosen to work or volunteer with children. They aim to do this by preventing people from working or volunteering with children if records indicate that they may pose an unacceptable level of risk to children. This type of pre-employment screening for child-related work commenced in Australia in 2000, when New South Wales introduced its WWCC scheme. Since then, every jurisdiction has established some form of WWCC scheme.

Pythagoras said that this world was like a stage / Whereon many play their parts; the lookers-on, the sage. Shakespeare Agreed! "I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; A stage where every man must play a part, And mine a sad one." (The Merchant of Venice, Act I, Scene I) "For what else is the life of man but a kind of play in which men in various costumes perform until the director motions them offstage?" Erasmus All The World's A Stage All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms. Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier, Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard, Jea