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To some, US secretary of state John Kerry may have appeared to be a genuine peacemaker as he floated around ideas during a Cairo visit on 25 July about a ceasefire between Israel and resisting Palestinian fighters in Gaza. But behind his measured diplomatic language, there is a truth not even America’s top diplomat can easily hide. His country is very much involved in fighting this dirty war on Gaza that has killed over 1,050, injured thousands more, and destroyed much of an already poor, dilapidated space that is barely inhabitable to begin with. US economic and military aid to Israel is measured annually in the billions, and the US government continues to be Israel’s strongest and most ardent ally and political benefactor. In fact, the US-Israel “special relationship” is getting more “special” by the day even though Israel is sinking further into the abyss of a well-deserved isolation.

 

 

The State of Israel's propaganda machine soared to new heights this morning as Google News featured a Google Plus post strait from the State of Israel in its news aggregate feed about the the war in Gaza.

The post was rapped in a hash tag that gives us a glimpse into what is motivating Israel's aggressive military campaign in Gaza – #terrortunnels. Each war gives us a new language of spin, as each side in a conflict try to win the battle for “hearts and minds,” through the use of propaganda. #terrortunnels is fast becoming this war's meme. And it was this meme that greeted me this morning in my Google news feed, presented as news.

“Israel 10 hours ago  -  Google+ Who builds Hamas' terror tunnels? The children of Gaza. Hamas uses child laborers to build their terror tunnels because, “much as in Victorian coal mines, they are prized for their nimble bodies”. According to Hamas officials, at least 160 children have been killed in the tunnels. #humanshields #hamasterrorists #israelunderfire #terrortunnels

 

U.S. alone in vote against investigation of crimes against humanity  

Is there any doubt that Israelis and Palestinians have been committing war crimes and crimes against each other’s humanity for decades?

Objectively, that seems to be a plain fact, with particular relevance to Israel, whose existence was made possible by, among other things, acts of terror. Nowadays Israel objects, with no apparent sense of irony, when Palestinians seeking their own state also resort to acts of terror. Terrorism is a tactic of the relatively weak (as is non-violence) that sometimes seems to produce the desired result, as did Irgun’s bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in 1946 that left 91 dead.

 

 

War and cancer are among our leading causes of human death around the world.  They can't be strictly separated and compared since war is a major cause of cancer, as is war preparation.  (And a small fraction of the U.S. budget for war preparations could fund cancer research well beyond all the money raised by public and private funding and by all the 5-K races for a cure and other activities we've become familiar with.)  War and cancer, by their nature, also can't be addressed with the same sort of responses. 

Cancer prevention, including possibly radical changes in industrial and energy policies, is fairly off-limits, whereas cancer treatment and the search for a cure is almost certainly our most widespread and publicly visible form of altruistic charity and advocacy.  When you see athletes or celebrities marked with bright pink, or a public event packed with pink shirts or ribbons, or -- alongside a road -- a giant pink inflatable anything, you are now less likely to think "WTF is that?" than "We need to help cure breast cancer."

 

At their July 8, 2014 County Central Committee meeting, the Franklin County Green Party endorsed the Columbus Community Bill of Rights. Co-Chair Bob Fitrakis called for “a return to localism where local people control their air and water and are not at the mercy of corporate polluters.”

The Columbus Community Bill of Rights proposes an Amendment to the Charter of the City of Columbus. A group is collecting signatures to put a citizens’ initiative on the ballot that will give Columbus residents local control over the extraction of hydrocarbons and protect the unalienable rights for pure water, clean air, and safe soil. The Community Bill of Rights would free Columbus citizens from "toxins, carcinogens, radioactive substances, and other substances known to cause harm to health.”

The Franklin County Green Party holds that human rights take precedence over corporate profit. “We do not believe corporations have the same rights of flesh and blood people, and living human beings have the right to decide what goes into their air, soil, and water,” Fitrakis stated.

 

 

If The Miracle Worker had a male lead, Matt Clemens would be perfect for the part.

In the past year, I’ve seen two theater productions that forced me to upgrade my opinions of the musicals in question. The first was Sunday in the Park With George at Short North Stage; the second was CATCO’s current staging of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

The one thing the productions have in common is that Clemens was cast as the male lead. To be sure, both shows have many other fine attributes, but it’s hard to overestimate the actor’s contributions. Not only does he sing like an angel—a fallen angel in the CATCO show—but he imbues his characters with enormous appeal.

In Scoundrels, David Yazbek and Jeffrey Lane’s stage adaptation of a 1988 movie, he plays a huckster named Lawrence who poses as a prince in order to prey on wealthy women vacationing on the French Riviera. Despite this morally bankrupt occupation, Clemens somehow convinces us Lawrence is a basically decent guy who’s worthy of our attention. Neat trick.

 

 

President Lyndon B. Johnson saw education as a critical way out of poverty. On April 11, 1965, he signed into law an often unrecognized but core component of his War on Poverty: the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA. Not only was this legislation intended to give poor children educational access but also to ensure that they would receive a quality education.

While many Americans are aware of LBJ’s War on Poverty, most probably do not know that he started out as a teacher at the Welhausen School in Cotulla, Texas – a Mexican-American school where he would become the principal. Long before he was a politician, he learned how important educational opportunity was for low-income and minority families. Toward the end of his presidency, he stated unequivocally his commitment to the value of education for all: “We believe, that is, you and I, that education is not an expense. We believe it is an investment.” (October 16, 1968).

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