News bits...

[tangaroa]

• U.S. President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his diplomatic efforts. If those efforts had yet lead to anything, the award might make more sense. As of now, it seems early.
• World Bank President Robert Zoellick questioned whether the dollar would continue to be used as the international standard of currency for very much longer.
• The Panhellenic Socialist Movement won close to a majority in Greece's elections, gaining more than ten percentage points from their previous showing. The incumbent New Democracy party, a liberal party which is relatively conservative by Greek standards, lost seven percentage points.
• Pope Benedict condemned the import of Western commercial cultural attitudes into Africa as a new form of "political colonialism".
• The U.S. suffered a strategic loss in Afghanistan, abandoning a village near Kamdesh to the Taliban. U.S. forces had won the battle, inflicting heavy casualties on the Taliban, but officers above them made the decision to surrender. This is very reminiscent of the abandonment of Wanat last year after a battle that left nearly 100 Taliban soldiers killed. Both surrenders underscore the need for more troops.
• For historical reference: The U.S. failed to establish good relations with the population in Wanat. That is an understatement; U.S. forces accidentally killed several well-respected locals a few days before the battle. All counter-insurgency operations must center on the support of the people.
• The website "Understanding War" has a report on the strategic outlook for the Helmand province of Afghanistan.
• Iran has sentenced three protesters to death.
• China had harsh words for members of the U.S. Congress who honored the Dali Lama of Tibet.
• Israel is adjusting its foreign policy to distance itself from the United States.
• Americans United for the Separation of Church and State has a report on the right-wing "Values Voters" conference. There's lots of craziness there from big names in the Republican party.
• U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia could not comprehend the possibility that someone might see the cross as a Christian symbol.
• Dalia Mogahed, U.S. President Obama's top advisor on Islam, promoted Shari'a during an interview on a television station owned by the fundamentalist Hizb ut-Tahrir.
• Geert Wilders hates Islam, in case there was any question about that.
• Phyllis Schlafly's idiot son is going to rewrite the Bible because it is not Christian enough.
• Glenn Beck warns that Obama will use "another Reichstag moment" to seize control of the media. This loon is one of the most popular newsanchors on U.S. television.
• An atheist in Tulsa, Oklahoma received death threats from religious nuts after being interviewed in a local newspaper.
• A Christian news service reports that a woman in Somalia was shot for teaching the Christian Bible.
• Radio Globo director David Romero, who praised Hitler and the Holocaust, turns out to himself be Jewish. That makes it criticism of Israel that no true progressive is allowed to disagree with.
• Solomonia has more links on the Goldstone report, these mostly reactions and opinions: Part 6, Part 7, Part 8. The earlier roundups had more substantial criticism. Also, CAMERA has a short list of errors in the Goldstone Report.
• Jonathan Wallace of the Ethical Spectacle compares the way Republicans abuse the English language to Nazi propaganda tactics.
• Here is a short essay defending the communal nature of fire department and applying the same thoughts to health care.
• The U.S. State Department cut funding to an organization that tracks reports of human rights abuses in Iran. It's not clear how important that organization was or what the State Department's considerations were. This report seems to be based off the organization's complaint after losing its funding.
• The BBC notes that climate models do not match the past ten years' temperature record, and suggests that natural processes may be causing a 20-year period of global cooling. However, current carbon dioxide levels are historically related to much higher temperatures than we are presently experiencing.
• An Associated Press writer presumes the innocence of convicted terrorists.
• U.S. author Paul L. Williams is being sued in Canadian court by McMaster University of Ontario, Canada for claiming that the school has hired Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaeda operatives to run its nuclear reactor and that they stole 180 pounds of radioactive material. The university says no such material is missing. Williams sources some of his information to DEBKA, a notoriously untrustworthy website, and his book was published by the equally untrustworthy World Net Daily. This does not speak well for the quality of his allegations, but there remains a point of concern in the suing of an American in a Canadian court for publishing a book in the United States.
• The Stop The War Coalition has published anti-semitic drivel by right-wing paleocons Paul Craig Roberts and Alan Sabrosky.
• The BNP blames the Jews for the English Defense League, an anti-Muslim group that overlaps with BNP's rhetoric.
• In a U.S. child custody battle, a woman has been banned from keeping materials of the parody religion Church of the Subgenius in her home.
• The website of the Guardian is deleting comments from users who mention the P.L.O. and Hamas charters.
• The P.L.O. organized riots in response to Jews visiting the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Jews have been allowed to visit their holiest site a few times this year. Each time has been uneventful, but the P.L.O. and Arab media have called these visits an "invasion" and "occupation" by "settlers".