The BBC tells us about the Anger over Palestinian Nakba ban proposal

Israeli campaigners and left-wing lawmakers have condemned moves to ban Israeli Arabs from marking the Nakba – the “catastrophe” of Israel’s creation.

On Sunday a government panel backed putting the bill, proposed by the party of far-right Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, before the Israeli Knesset.

A Labour minister opposed it; Hadash, a mainly Arab party, called it “racist”.
…

Under the proposed legislation, people caught marking the Nakba could be jailed for up to three years.

Lieberman was one of the people behind the action that excluded Hadash from the recent election, something that had to be overturned by the Israeli supreme court. Waiting in the wings is his requirement that everyone in Israel take a loyalty oath.

Lieberman is a recent immigrant with an interesting CV for a foreign minister – working as a bouncer in bars in Romania. But I shouldn’t be too hard on Lieberman, because he and his party aren’t the worst in Netanyahu’s coalition. His party only advocates apartheid, not ethnic cleansing.

The ABC reports that China condemns N Korean nuclear test

China has condemned North Korea’s nuclear test and called on Pyongyang not to worsen the situation.

North Korea reportedly test-fired three short range missiles, just hours after detonating a nuclear device.

It is believed the nuclear blast detonated deep underground was at least four times more powerful than North Korea’s first test nearly three years ago.

While the Stalinist state hailed the test as a cause for national celebration, it has been condemned around the world.

“The Chinese Government expresses its resolute opposition,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on its website.

[Read more →]

Dick “Dick” Cheney keeps saying that the Hedgemony and its illegal activities kept us safe, but they ignore the Anthrax cases that were never really solved, and the ongoing series of bombings in New York: Explosion rocks Upper East Side in New York

The explosion blew out the windows of a Starbucks coffeehouse at East 92nd Street and Third Avenue at 3:25 a.m., according to New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

A “low-order improvised explosive device” exploded after being left on a wooden bench in front of the coffeehouse, Kelly said. The blast could be heard many blocks away, according to CNN affiliate WABC-TV of New York.

Seven people were briefly evacuated from the building above the Starbucks, Kelly said, but no one was injured. The interior of the Starbucks sustained no damage.

It’s too early to tell whether Monday’s incident is connected to other minor explosions in New York City in recent years, including ones at the British and Mexican consulates and another in Times Square, Kelly said.

This is a rather classic form of terrorism, but the wars and violations of civil liberties don’t seem to be very successful in solving it. It probably requires that “quaint” institution – police work.

Towel Day

This is a picture from one of the columbariums at the Arlington National Cemetery, the final resting place of many of those who served the United States since the middle of the 19^th century.

That is my Father’s marker. He didn’t know those located around his marker, but they all shared service to their country as part of their life.

Last year on May 30^th my uncle, Maynard Emhof, passed away. He was the last of my close family members who fought in World War II.

I have just learned that a first cousin, twice removed, [the grandchild of a first cousin], is in training for deployment to Afghanistan in the Fall.

The country continues to ask for service and people still respond to that call. As you think about the sacrifices represented by Arlington and other cemeteries, ask yourself if you have done what you could to prevent misuse of the willingness of some to serve.

It is rather for us the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us–that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion–that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.