Signs of the Times News for Sat, 28 Nov 2009

SOTT Focus / Best of the Web

Best of the Web: Honduras on standby as Washington endorses gunpoint election

Bill Van Auken
World Socialist Web Site
Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:54 EST

© REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas
People cast symbolic votes in protest at being prevented from doing so on the day their President was removed from power in a coup d'etat.

The Obama administration has declared its support for elections being held this Sunday in Honduras, under conditions in which the regime that came to power in a coup last June has refused to cede power and is preparing intense repression against those who oppose it.

The action has placed Washington at odds with virtually all of Latin America, whose governments have refused to recognize the elections as legitimate.

The US endorsement of the elections represents the culmination of a policy that has lent political support to the coup regime headed by the Liberal Party leader of the national legislature, Roberto Micheletti, and the Honduran military, even as Washington has given lip service to the principle of restoring the country's elected president, Manuel Zelaya, to power.

Peter Eyre
The Palestine Telegraph
Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:20 EST

I was shocked to see this photograph of Israeli elders showing children how to use weapons of war. It is a known fact that in Israel young children are raised with this mentality. Israeli children from the age of 13 are offered a variety of training.

Many schools have uniformed teacher soldiers and guides who provide the vital link between the education system and the military. A more intense programme of activities starts at age 15-16 and from age 16 onwards students are brainwashed ready to enlist in the IDF.

Youth battalions are offered a one week military training programme on an IDF bas as part of the 16-17 year old curriculum at most Jewish State Schools. The armed forces also directly administered schools, including the Beit Biram Military Boarding School in Haifa, which accepted students from age 14. Pupils at this school are called cadets and wear military uniforms. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) also run four technical schools for children aged 13 and above. Amal High School in Ramat David was a joint military-civilian facility for children aged 13 and older based on an IAF base.

Best of the Web: The Scandal of Hunger in America

Gilbert Mercier
News Junkie Post
Thu, 26 Nov 2009 03:00 EST

Today, about 49 million Americans experience what the US government refers to as "food insecurity with hunger". It is Thanksgiving, a perfect time to reflect on hunger. Hunger is a miserable feeling and a powerful word that rightly produces anger and outrage. Today's hunger and poverty crisis is similar, in scope, to the one of the Great Depression.

One in six people in America suffer from chronic hunger. In a nation that is both, the world's largest economy and its most productive food producer, it is simply not acceptable. In Los Angeles, one of the wealthiest cities in California, which is the world's eight largest economy and America's top agricultural state, one in eight people suffer from hunger.

Los Angeles county is in the middle of an unprecedented hunger crisis with over 1 million people confronting hunger and food insecurity on a daily basis. This is not including the homeless population, which is currently estimated at 100,000 in Los Angeles county. One in eight Angelinos must often make the decision between paying the rent or buying food to feed themselves and their families. The daily struggle of 1 million people in Los Angeles that the US government defines, in an understatement, as "food insecurity" is real, and it is on a dramatic rise all across America.

Best of the Web: Spitting Mad Jews and Angry Artists

Lasha Darkmoon
Occidental Observer
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:02 EST

My article, "The Plot Against Art," elicited an unprecedented number of emails. These came mostly from angry artists who believed that they had produced works of high quality that had been spurned by the art establishment. The artists who had achieved world fame, on the other hand, had in many cases done so only because they had produced decadent works of trash designed to deprave and corrupt the public: such as pornographic Madonnas, crucifixes offensively placed in urine, cans stuffed with the artist's own excrement, and unmade beds with condoms and blood-stained panties conveniently scattered around as "significant" litter.

These puerile charlatans had set out to destroy traditional values, promote sexual perversion, mock Christianity, and, in general, create ugliness and despair - a sorry situation promoted by an art establishment that has been dominated since the early 20th century by Jewish art critics, collectors and dealers. This Jewish influence on art is of course in accordance with the openly declared aims of the Frankfurt School, a Jewish revolutionary movement dedicated to the destruction of traditional Western values - and indeed to the very people who live by those cherished values.

Unbelievable? Absolutely. If it weren't unbelievable, it wouldn't be true.

I ought perhaps to mention my reasons for discussing these emails in public. (With one exception, pseudonyms are used, because this was generally insisted on as the condition for publication. I also had to do some editing for style and brevity.)

Best of the Web: No Way Through

Alexandra Monro and Sheila Menon
Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:19 EST

What would it be like if British or American or French or German people were treated in the same way that the Israeli government treats Palestinians?

The short film (7 minutes) entitled "No Way Through" brilliantly depicts the effects of mobility restrictions imposed by Israeli authorities and soldiers on Palestinians living the West Bank. These restrictions limit Palestinians access to health care, thus violating a fundamental human right.

Take Action to help people in the Occupied Palestinian Territories get justice.

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