David Bernstein of The Volokh Conspiracy examines an interview with Desmond Travers, a member of the fact-finding mission that resulted in the Goldstone report. Bernstein lists some quotes from the interview, stating: All the quotes check out, but the quotes recounted above don’t begin to illustrate Travers’s hatred of Israel, unwillingness to credit anything Israel […]
I’ve written about the environmental devastation inherent in the development of Canada’s tar sands a few times, so here’s a quick update: ForestEthics is effecting change in getting some big companies to tell their fuel suppliers they don’t want gasoline that uses tar sands oil. Whole Foods and Bed Bath & Beyond are on board. […]
Can corruption really be fought? That is, can you change a society from one whose everyday wheels are greased by bribes to one in which petty corruption is rare and shunned? Can you, say, turn Uzbekistan into Britain? The textbook examples of such change are Singapore and Hong Kong. Both faced corruption as a commonplace […]
Sustainable Harvest International invited educators to apply for their Educator Workshops in Central America to help engage in dialogue about community-based service-learning involving concepts of sustainability, organic agriculture and environmental restoration. FPA added this opportunity to the Professional Development Resources for Educators found in the “In the Classroom” section of the FPA.org website. Visit their […]
China overtakes Germany as the worlds leading exporting nation, setting a new milestone. Germany had previously supplanted the United States in 2003.
The U.S. is continuing to work with allies to resolve the Iranian nuclear crisis. According to this report, President Obama is close to achieving consensus for a new round of sanctions: US President Barack Obama warned Iran on Tuesday that he would isolate the Islamic republic with a “significant regime of sanctions” if it continued […]
The Obama Administration has announced the creation of a new national service to study and report on climate change. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, already deeply involved in climate science and reporting, will be the parent agency. In this article, CBS News quotes NOAA’s head, Dr. Jane Lubchenco: “More and more people are asking […]
That is a heart-wrenching statistic. Specifically, one in four suffer from some form of physical violence while at least 10% are sexually abused. To address the problem, the EU is considering a common European-wide single telephone number for victims. The European Parliament today decided that the full physical and sexual autonomy of women is a […]
This batch of links is dedicated to my friends in Washington D.C., who are home from work, staring out their windows in awe of mass precipitation. To ease your Snowmaggedon boredom, some light reading: 1. If the climate accord works, will the climate notice? Maybe. But success depends on what countries do after 2020. 2. […]
Sorry if I seem to be (relatively) blithely indifferent to the many and varied blows that climate change legislation, international agreement and even climate science appear to have been sustaining over the past several months, but I remain quite hopeful that legislation and diplomacy will continue to advance and, even more so, that clean tech […]
Sometimes, it can be good to hear from the naysayers. I remember during the presidential campaign many FP bloggers noted the incredible world-wide hope and enthusiasm that greeted the Obama candidacy. It was hoped that Obama would transform the U.S. role in the world. It’s time to revisit that topic. In this opinion piece, Professor […]
While roughly 300,000 people around the globe have participated in the Fulbright Program, named after internationalist Senator William J. Fulbright, since its inception in 1946, it’s probably safe to say that researcher Canyon Cody’s collaboration with producer/rapper Gnotes is the first project to fuse hip-hop with Spanish Andalusian flamenco. The vibrant, 14 track record, Granada […]
Financial markets continue to be roiled this week over fears that a European debt crisis could derail the global recovery. Investors are spooked by the debt problem in Greece – a possible precursor of what may happen in the U.S. Investors fear Greece may default on its sovereign debt, or require a bailout from already strapped European governments. Those concerns are spreading to other financially troubled governments in Europe.
All eyes are on Sarah Palin’s left hand—you might even call it a vast left-wing conspiracy—after it doubled as a cheat sheet during a Q&A at the National Tea Party Convention. For those wondering, the words/talking points she had written on her palm were: “energy,” “tax” and “lift American spirits.” Palin did something I’ve always […]