“The leadership of Oglaigh na h’Eireann has formally ordered an end to the armed campaign. This will take effect from 4pm this afternoon. All IRA units have been ordered to dump arms” (Extract from IRA statement of 28 July) So the IRA has given up the gun for the ballot box – but not for the first time. In 1956 it was reluctantly pushed by its young activists to begin a ‘Border Campaign’. Within a few months the campaign had deteriorated into cutting down a few telegraph poles and issuing grandiose statements about the activities of their commandos. Away...
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I find the Terry Shiavo case very interesting and confusing. I can see how both sides have a case. Terry’s husband, believing he is fulfilling his wife’s wishes of not being left a vegetable, has finally filed enough legal documents to get the feeding tube, the tube that also provides her with water, removed so that she will die. Her parents and other family members have been fighting long and hard to have the tube maintained, or in some cases, reattached to keep her alive. They maintain that she can respond to their voices and they believe that with...
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Don’t get me wrong, I think war sucks as much as the rest of you do, but I got to thinking, are our lives any better, in general, when we aren’t having a war. One of the strongest arguments against the war in Iraq have been that the money being wasted waging this war could be better spent on problems here in the U.S. Some of these problems are declining health care, housing and the homeless, education, roads, more libraries, city development, hunger…the list goes on. Not being in Iraq, it is hard to tell which is better for...
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While you might not be surprised to learn that it’s customary at Holocaust commemorative events for German politicians to remain silent , you might find it interesting to know who else shows up at them. Remember the folks who brought 100,000 dead Iraqis shock and awe? Well, one of the survivors, U.S. strongman Dick Cheney (temporarily out of the loop at Halliburton), galvanized an audience in Krakow, Poland, the day before the Auschwitz event with some poignantly immortal prose. “Gathered in this place,” he pontificated, “we are reminded that such immense...
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The recent suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that took four more innocent lives remains a nauseating reminder of the brave lengths individuals will go to protest injustices in capitalism, but also remains an important lesson of the futility of protesting them in such violent ways. Israeli Cabinet minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Abbas, the new Palestinian leader, must move quickly. “This time, words are not enough. He has to combat terrorism,” Ben-Eliezer, a former defense minister, told Israel Army Radio on Saturday. Of course, the terrorism that the terrorists are themselves reacting against is never raised in the press, namely...
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In an Associated Press report earlier today, much of the tsunami aid that Sri Lanka is receiving is for the most part useless. Aid workers on the island report that many boxes contain things like winter coats, high-heeled shoes, and thong underwear. One box from Australia even contained bottles of Viagra. While aid workers and victims are of course grateful for all the assistance that the world has provided, they are hard pressed to find a use for many items in a country where most people wear shorts and sandals. Not being satisfied in our own materialism, the citizens...
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With peace talks on the horizon and attacks continuing, one has to wonder if the conflicts between Israel and Palestine will ever truly be resolved. This area of the world has been perhaps that most highly contested place on the planet. On the surface the conflict appears to be a religious struggle, with both sides proclaiming the land as holy territory. However, the real issue is not over the land itself, and the resources that it contains. It is an economic struggle, with an economic solution. The struggle is contained in capitalism, with different countries fighting over the resources...
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Earlier today, it was announced by the North Korean government that it was in the possession of nuclear weapons. It is thought that this could be a ploy to instill fear in other countries, particularly in the five countries that had been involved in disarmaments talks with N. Korea. One newspaper has been quoted about the situation by calling it “a crisis from hell”. At the same time it is thought that perhaps N. Korea is simply bluffing to gain leverage on the international community. Amidst the announcement, the US continues to reiterate the importance of restarting the 6...
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That is the slogan of my favorite energy drink, Rockstar. I drink one on irregular occasions, usually at work when I am tired and its busy. A lot of people drink energy drinks to stay alert at work. Other people will drink a variety of coffee drinks from some place like Starbucks. The company has a large faithful following of people who will not only wait in line for coffee, but will pay $7.00 for one as well. While it is nice to get a little energy boost when you work long hours at a boring monotonous job, (think...
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Since the end of the Second World War, when the US forced the Italian government to discharge its Communist Party cabinet members as a prerequisite for aid, to its support for the coup attempt in Venezuela in 2003, the US has been regularly subverting elections around the globe for the benefit of its own corporate elite. Ever fearful that foreign governments might, among other things, introduce labour and environmental legislation detrimental to US investments, Washington has opposed the principle of democracy on almost every continent, even helping to overthrow democratically elected governments whenever it felt its interests threatened (e.g....
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