By Teymoor Nabili

President Obama unexpectedly held a hush-hush briefing about Iran last week.

 According to the Washington Post:

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I ran oligarchic British rule from America. I replaced it with rule "of, by, and for" the people.

I am not a man. I am the soul of America.  I am the spirit of 'We the People'.

I want you, the good people of America, to recognize me. I am dying.

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By Clayton Swisher

Reflecting on my coverage of the latest UN report released on Tuesday showing a 31 per cent increase in overall Afghan civilians casualties, a couple of questions raised in my mind about the overall chances for success by the US-led coalition.

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1. Homosexuality is not natural -- much like eyeglasses, polyester, fellatio, indoor plumbing, and birth control.

2. Heterosexual marriages are valid because they produce children. (As we all know, infertile couples and old people cant legally get married, as they are utterly barren.)

Tags: marriage equality

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This time it started out differently. Adam Mueller and Pete Eyre from Liberty on Tour were there with Antonio Musumeci (otherwise known as "Bile" for his blog, Blog of Bile) and, of course, Julian Heicklen.

Tags: NY | Liberty on Tour | Heicklen | FIJA | Blog of Bile

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By Nicole Johnston

As you approach Gaza's main dump by road you see a massive wall of trash looming over the plain.

It's crawling with around one hundred scavenger dogs and dozens of poor children, combing through the trash for anything they can sell.

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Not many would have heard of the Nenets who inhabit the Yamal Peninsula in the Arctic Circle between the Kara Sea and the Gulf of Ob. I too hadn’t until I came across a feature on them in Geographical, the magazine of the Royal Geographical Society of UK.

Tags: indigenous people | climate change

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By Teymoor Nabili

John McCain was attempting comedy, but his little jingle may repeat itself as tragedy.

Republican hawks in the US House of Representatives have introduced a bill to support (encourage?) Israeli military action against Iran.

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By W.G. McDonald

First, seek the most direct path
leading to the pantry.
Focus on the jar itself.

Tags: Zen | Art | Peanut Butter

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By JOSEPH W. MCQUAID
New Hampshire Union Leader Publisher 

SARAH PALIN'S endorsement of Kelly Ayotte for U.S. Senate should neither surprise nor upset the other campaigns. The race will be won by the candidate who impresses New Hampshire voters, and New Hampshire voters are rarely impressed by what outsiders have to say.

Tags: Sarah Palin | Kelly Ayotte | New Hampshire

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The forecasts for India’s high economic growth have been coming thick and fast. Only late last year the Parisbased Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development predicted a 5.9% growth for India in 2009 and 7.2% 2010. In his budget speech earlier this year the Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherji, had promised to put the economy on a trajectory of high growth and there have been several occasions when he predicted that India’s GDP would grow at the rate of more than 8%.

Tags: GDP India

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By Gabriel Elizondo

Hollman Morris is a Colombian journalist who has received dozens of international awards for his work uncovering atrocities and human rights abuses in the decade’s-long armed conflict in his country.

But the United States apparently views him as a terrorist. (More on this terrorist thing later).

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Any natural or man-made disaster raises controversies. A disaster of the scale that Bhopal witnessed because of the leak of the lethal methyl isocynate (MIC) on one cold December morning in 1984 was sure to raise controversies of huge proportions. That is precisely what it did, and more so after the June7, 2010 ultra-mild verdict handed out to the accused officials of Union Carbide of India Ltd. (UCIL). In the process, facts and fiction got merged and one doesn’t really know what is true and what is not and what to believe and what not to. A few of these are subject of this article.

Tags: Bhopal gas leak

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By Imran Khan

Standing in the valley I look to the North East and Afghanistan.

The Tora Bora mountains seem to push toward the sky and even in July ominous clouds lurk overhead.

The Pakistani army have brought me to Khurram agency in the remote tribal belt in the North West of the country.

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By Clayton Swisher

It's not clear what miracles Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel can work for General Petraeus now that he's the top officer in Kabul.

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By Nicole Johnston

First close down the borders and refuse to allow any exports out.

Then ban the importing of any raw material for factories and businesses.

Force the commercial class to rely on expensive underground smuggling tunnels to procure what the community needs. This in turn enriches the tunnel owners.

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Recently we had a 16-hour power outage commencing from midnight until 4.00 next afternoon. The inverter saw us through the hot and stuffy night but it, too, lost its energy by the next afternoon. There was no alternative but to bear the acute discomfort of an air-less hot afternoon. Outages are frequent but this was out of the ordinary.

Tags: india | solar power

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By Nicole Johnston

Keram Abu Salem Crossing

We watched the trucks roll into Gaza with goods Israel has not allowed in for more than three years.

And when we waved the drivers down to stop so we could see the cargo, there were those innocuous items; kids’ footballs, packets of pencils, children’s backpacks, kitchen cutlery and sewing material.

Tags: blockade

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The place just isn’t the same. Going near the courts in lower Manhattan, New York City seems under siege. Streets are blocked off with mechanized metal barriers. Police from all levels of government, local, state, and federal, abound. Some are busy inspecting under cars with mirrors. Some aren’t so busy standing in little guard houses keeping an eye on their surroundings. Others just milling about. This is the surreal world we walked into.

Tags: video | FIJA | NY | arrest | US Marshals | Heicklen

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If you've ever purchased a privately owned car, you may are left wondering how to get the smell of cigarette smoke out of a car. Some people go the additional mile to detail their cars before sale, but if you are scoping a spur-of-the-moment deal on Craigslist, you may be purchasing an AS-IS car that doubled as a mobile smoking lounge. Not only are the upholstery and instrument panel stained or discolored from cigarette smoke, but the odor has been left behind. You have to learn how to get the cigarette smell out of a car in case you are a non-smoker who prefers a low-tar automobile interior.

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