Global
On October 11, we'll learn whether the Norwegian Nobel Committee is interested in reviving the Nobel Peace Prize or putting another nail in its coffin.
Alfred Nobel's vision for the Nobel Peace Prize created in his will was a good one and, one might have thought, a legally binding one as well.
The peace prize is not supposed to be awarded to proponents of war, such as Barack Obama or the European Union.
It is not supposed to be awarded to good humanitarians whose work has little or nothing to do with peace, such as most other recent recipients. As with the Carnegie Endowment for Peace which works for almost anything but, in violation of its creator's will, and as with many a "peace and justice" group focused on all sorts of good causes that aren't the elimination of militarism, the Nobel has become a "peace" prize, rather than a peace prize.
Alfred Nobel's vision for the Nobel Peace Prize created in his will was a good one and, one might have thought, a legally binding one as well.
The peace prize is not supposed to be awarded to proponents of war, such as Barack Obama or the European Union.
It is not supposed to be awarded to good humanitarians whose work has little or nothing to do with peace, such as most other recent recipients. As with the Carnegie Endowment for Peace which works for almost anything but, in violation of its creator's will, and as with many a "peace and justice" group focused on all sorts of good causes that aren't the elimination of militarism, the Nobel has become a "peace" prize, rather than a peace prize.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Saudi Arabian women scored a hilarious boost to
their campaign for the right to drive when an Islamist cleric became
an international laughingstock for insisting ovaries suffer damage if
women hold a steering wheel because it "pushes the pelvis upwards."
Saudi cleric Sheikh Saleh bin Saad al-Lohaidan's remarks in an interview published on the Arabic-language news site sabq.org on September 27, were quickly translated into English and went viral across Internet, attracting mockery, insults and dismay.
His rant was highlighted further when "Reuters earlier wrongly identified him as Sheikh Saleh bin Mohammed al-Lohaidan, a member of the Senior Council of Scholars, one of the top religious bodies in the birthplace of Islam," Reuters news agency said on September 29 correcting its initial report.
"By contrast, Sheikh Saleh bin Saad al-Lohaidan, the person quoted in the sabq.org report, is a judicial adviser to an association of Gulf psychologists," Reuters said in its newer update headlined: "Top Saudi cleric says women who drive risk damaging their ovaries."
Saudi cleric Sheikh Saleh bin Saad al-Lohaidan's remarks in an interview published on the Arabic-language news site sabq.org on September 27, were quickly translated into English and went viral across Internet, attracting mockery, insults and dismay.
His rant was highlighted further when "Reuters earlier wrongly identified him as Sheikh Saleh bin Mohammed al-Lohaidan, a member of the Senior Council of Scholars, one of the top religious bodies in the birthplace of Islam," Reuters news agency said on September 29 correcting its initial report.
"By contrast, Sheikh Saleh bin Saad al-Lohaidan, the person quoted in the sabq.org report, is a judicial adviser to an association of Gulf psychologists," Reuters said in its newer update headlined: "Top Saudi cleric says women who drive risk damaging their ovaries."
As the Republicans in Washington effectively draw everyone’s attention toward ‘recalcitrant’ and ‘unreasonable’ Democrats concerning a perceivable impasse over the Affordable Care Act, one story is going unreported in the mainstream media. At the end of the day, when the government reopens, Republicans will have won.
Of course, this Republican victory will have nothing whatever to do with the Affordable Care Act and their repeated attempts to defund and delay the legislation. Even most Republicans in the House of Representatives acknowledge that President Obama has neither the inclination nor the will to sign a bill that includes a delay of his signature piece of legislation. No, the Republican victory will have everything to do with money.
This hostage scenario, as conceived and carried out by the House Republicans, will come to an end when they vote on a ‘Clean CR,’ which only means a temporary government funding measure. When that happens it is crucial to remember that a certain amount of money has already been allocated in government spending. But let’s back up for a minute.
Of course, this Republican victory will have nothing whatever to do with the Affordable Care Act and their repeated attempts to defund and delay the legislation. Even most Republicans in the House of Representatives acknowledge that President Obama has neither the inclination nor the will to sign a bill that includes a delay of his signature piece of legislation. No, the Republican victory will have everything to do with money.
This hostage scenario, as conceived and carried out by the House Republicans, will come to an end when they vote on a ‘Clean CR,’ which only means a temporary government funding measure. When that happens it is crucial to remember that a certain amount of money has already been allocated in government spending. But let’s back up for a minute.
As soon as the federal government shut down for the first time in nearly a decade, a surreal disquiet settled over the D.C. area. For political junkies inside the beltway the whole scene leading up to the shutdown was actually something of a spectacle. With countdown clocks, last minute deals, and dramatic speeches on the house and senate floors, this was political theatre at its finest. But as soon as October 1 came the hype started to fizzle and a harsh reality set in.
More than 800,000 federal workers were sent home without pay. Funding for national science programs all but completely came to a halt. National parks closed their access to the public. Cuts to the Head Start program were amplified, although the shutdown is only an additional burden to the across-the-board sequester cuts that affected Head Start in March.
More than 800,000 federal workers were sent home without pay. Funding for national science programs all but completely came to a halt. National parks closed their access to the public. Cuts to the Head Start program were amplified, although the shutdown is only an additional burden to the across-the-board sequester cuts that affected Head Start in March.
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With a half mile remaining in the Arrowhead Invitational, St. Francis DeSales High School cross country runner Ian Lawson looked to the spot where Bob Lennon would’ve stood and tried to remember what the veteran coach would’ve told him.
Lennon, 64, was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver while bicycling on Miller Paul Road in Granville on Sept. 14.
“I couldn’t think of anything inspirational he said,” says Lawson, a senior who placed seventh in 17 minutes, 21 seconds in the Arrowhead Invitational on Sept. 18. “I’ll be honest. It’s not like he had the most inspirational words for us. The last race he coached, the two things he said to me were ‘hold that position’ and ‘OK, go now.’”
While the words might not exactly match Vince Lombardi’s or Knute Rockne’s inspirational speeches, they’ve become the mission statement for the Stallions boys and girls cross country teams. DeSales is simply holding on to each other as they go forward without their coach.
“They’re coping by sticking together,” says Katie Shelton, a DeSales guidance counselor who has been co-coaching the team with 1999 DeSales graduate Emily Rizek.
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The Columbus College of Arts and Design hosted its second annual Mix Symposium last Friday and Saturday, with keynote guest Jeff Smith (Bone, RASL). With a number of panels featuring academic presentations, several workshops where students discussed the comics craft with local creators, and a two hour keynote featuring Smith and journalist Tom Spurgeon, the symposium highlighted the diversity of the comics medium and the growing comic scene in Columbus.
The symposium was designed as a place for dialogue between academics, creators and fans. “This year’s Mix came closer to achieving the symposium’s aim,” said Mix organizer Robert Loss. “That’s a tough thing to measure, honestly; it’s a very egalitarian and somewhat experimental approach. It’s one thing to have both groups at one event, but it’s another to actually have them engage with each other on panels.”
The event featured twelve panels covering a number of topics that extended beyond mainstream superhero comics. “We had a more diverse Mix [this year], with presentations on women’s comics, international comics, and African-American comics,” said Loss.
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It's been a little embarrassing to be a Transformers fan lately. Michael Bay's movies keep making piles upon piles of money regardless of how viciously they're panned by critics. While the live-action movies, the first of which was released in 2007, have catapulted the 80s-icon Robots In Disguise into 21st-century pop culture stardom, they've also made the name synonymous with terrible writing, worse acting, unintelligible fight scenes and explosions at the expense of everything else. Is that really what we're fans of?
IDW Publishing has been putting out comics about the Transformers since 2005, but only recently have they reached a quality not only above nearly every other Transformers show, comic or movie before them, but indeed over a lot of other comics on the shelves today. Nearly any writer or artist given duties on a Transformers series will tell you what big fans they've always been, but nobody owns it quite like writer James Roberts and artist Alex Milne on the currently-running Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye series.
With the Transformers name so closely tied to bad storytelling, it's not surprising that “MTMTE” doesn't get the attention it deserves.
The community was out of control — the children, oh my God, the children, were sniffing gasoline and pretty much abandoning any pretense of a future — and the social and criminal-justice systems were just adding to the problem. Nothing was working.
“Our children slammed us against a brick wall,” Burma Bushie said.
This is the story of a culture in shambles. It was the early ’80s. Bushie’s community is called the Hollow Water First Nation Reserve, a village of about 900 people in eastern Manitoba, more or less at the end of the highway. There was one road in and one road out.
They may have felt utterly isolated in their troubles, but what a few of them started to do — in synchronicity with people in other indigenous communities — has spread hope and awareness across the planet. They began reaching beyond the known (i.e., Western) world, deep into their souls and into the roots of a lost way of life, to save their children and the future. Without intending to, they started a movement. And the slow reverberation of change continues to spread.
America just celebrated the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s great “I Have a Dream” speech. Everyone says that they “love” Dr. King (now), but the media did notice that no top Republican Party leaders attended any of the main anniversary events.
Maybe it was this line of Dr. King ’s that they don’t like: “I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification…”
What is nullification? It’s one of the last-ditch philosophical stands of the slaveholders, the historically disreputable — and thoroughly discredited — concept that a state could “nullify” a federal law by declaring it null and void. The idea of the Slave Power was that the Southern states would “interpose” themselves between the national government and the slaveholders, and prevent our laws from being enforced.
Maybe it was this line of Dr. King ’s that they don’t like: “I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification…”
What is nullification? It’s one of the last-ditch philosophical stands of the slaveholders, the historically disreputable — and thoroughly discredited — concept that a state could “nullify” a federal law by declaring it null and void. The idea of the Slave Power was that the Southern states would “interpose” themselves between the national government and the slaveholders, and prevent our laws from being enforced.