Say goodbye the equality of the internet. On June 11, the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of net neutrality regulations went into effect. Previously, internet service providers (ISPs) were required to offer equal access to all web content. Now, ISPs are allowed to block websites or charge for higher-quality service or specific content. They can also push consumers…
Category: News
Hard Lesson
“Of course, it’s different for underwear,” the professor said as she hobbled around the desk. “If you happen to be confronted by your assailant while you are dressed only in your nightclothes — which happens more often than you would think …” and she paused a moment there, a wistful gleam in her eye. “Anyway,…
Rising roar of faux faith in poll-bound India
A rural temple in South India, painted stone as deity. If you hear the rising roar of faith, it is election-time in India. Belief in God is stronger than any political belief. Faith rushes to fill ideological vacuum and goes on to cleanse politics of its residual ideological content. Religious fervour, injected into a…
The King of Dauphin Island
Marcus Weems was the sixth-richest man in the state of Alabama, but he lost his wife to cancer like everybody else. Of course he brought the full leverage of his affluence to bear on her condition — Sloan Kettering, Johns Hopkins, M.D. Anderson, names of hospitals like the board of directors for some conglomerate of…
Venezuela is now a regional crisis
Refugees in a camp in Colombia, Source: Wikimedia Commons In April 2017 the Venezuelan opposition began a major campaign of street protests against the government of President Nicolás Maduro. For four months, riot police and the National Guard clashed almost every day with thousands of protesters on the streets of Caracas and other Venezuelan cities….
Trump’s Desire To Pardon Himself Is A Move Common In Authoritarian Regimes
Donald Trump’s June 4 tweet suggesting he could pardon himself in the event that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation brings charges drew outrage among critics, part of mounting and long-standing concern about the president’s disrespect for “the rule of law.” Many prominent lawmakers, law professors, and journalists, among others, see the administration flouting this cornerstone…
Policing Islamism: a fatal disconnect
Anjem Choudary outside a bail hostel after his release from Belmarsh Prison. David Mirzoeff/ Press Association. All rights reserved. The radical preacher Anjem Choudary was released early on 19 October from Belmarsh high-security jail in south-east London, having been moved there from Frankland prison in Durham, north-east England, where he had served two years and…
Yesterday’s Garbage
The best grade of garbage in this city comes from the Hillcrest neighborhood, and on Thursdays when I make my run through the alleys of Hillcrest, my wife, Caledonia, rides beside me in the truck, admiring all those fancy backyards. Caledonia seldom climbs down out of the cab. She trusts me to inspect the garbage….
Restaurant responds to customer's racist tirade that was caught on video.
There are two conflicting trends happening today in American life. One one hand, the majority of Americans believe that Donald Trump has made racists more comfortable expressing their views in public. On the other hand, for the first time on record, more Americans want to see legal immigration levels increased rather than decreased. So, are…
The EU response to the Libyan crisis: shallow impact with a short-term vision
Trainees perform a drill during graduation ceremony in Tripoli, Libya, on Feb. 13, 2018. Picture by Hamza Turkia/Xinhua News Agency/PA Images. All rights reserved.Seven years after the Arab uprisings, Libya’s deinstitutionalization of the established order is far from being a success story. In 2011, the ‘Arab Spring’ events were a surprise to the EU, its…