by Jacob G. Hornberger

While there has been much discussion over why Muslims hate Americans, much less attention has been given to why neocons hate Muslims. While it might be true that some neocons hate Muslims for their religious and cultural values, I think there is a better explanation for their hatred. I think the real reason that neocons want to kill Muslims so badly is that people in the Middle East, who are predominately Muslim, have refused to accept the domination of the U.S. Empire, especially in the aftermath of the Cold War, when the U.S. became the world’s sole remaining empire. That refusal has earned them the everlasting enmity of American neocons.

If You Think Nuclear Power is Safe and Clean (like the President does), think again (like the President should)!

President Obama thinks he can jumpstart a new generation of safe and clean nuclear power plants.

Nuclear power is neither safe nor clean, nor cheap, nor useful, nor vital, nor good for America.  And no "new" nuclear power plant design will make nuclear power any of these things.

By Robert Singer

In an effort to explain our escalating financial crisis, an American Nightmare (an Environmental Dream), the pundits are focusing their angst on the 44^th POTUS, who might very well go down as the single most inept president in all of American history. (How to Squander the Presidency in One Year, David Michael Green)

By Joel S. Hirschhorn

Business ethics has become an oxymoron.  Wall Street bonuses were up 17 percent to over $20 billion in 2009, the year taxpayers bailed out the financial sector after its meltdown.  So, everyone has many reasons to hate the banking and financial sectors that dumped our economy, and the general corruption of American politics by corporate interests.  There are good reasons to detest the pharmaceutical industry.  Besides raping people with onerous prices for prescription drugs, corporate greed coupled with ineffective government regulation and oversight is actually killing Americans through unsafe drugs.

From the time we are born we follow a path and that path is unique and our own. Through the course of life many people cross our path. Most have little or no effect on our lives; others have tremendous impact. Ideally, we make choices - we are in control but sometimes other people make choices for us.

To what extent are we authors of our own lives? As our paths meander through countries and cities and bedrooms and through pleasure and pain, do we ask ourselves who is in control or do we just follow along the path of least resistance?

This is a story of choices. It is a story of two men whose paths intersect with devastating consequences.

A leading Cuban political activist jailed since 2003 has died after a lengthy hunger strike, officials in a Havana hospital have said.

Latin American and Caribbean leaders have agreed to create a new regional bloc that excludes the US and Canada.

A retired Saudi Arabian school teacher has gone on trial in Indonesia accused of financing last year's twin suicide bombings on Jakarta hotels.

New regulations on internet use in China have been condemned by a media rights watchdog as an effort to tighten political control and a "disturbing step backwards" for online freedoms.

Pakistan's foreign secretary has arrived in New Delhi for bilateral talks with India - the first between the two neighbours since the Mumbai attacks in 2008.

A Russian official has indicated that Moscow could support new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme, but not ones as severe as Western countries and Israel are seeking.

Three executives from internet search firm Google have been convicted of privacy violations over allowing a video of a handicapped boy being bullied to be posted online.

Investigators in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) say they have  identified 15 more suspects in the assassination of a Hamas official at a Dubai luxury hotel last month.

The head of Toyota has blamed the Japanese carmaker's pursuit of rapid growth for slipping safety standards that have led to recalls of millions of cars around the world.

Greek police have fired tear gas at a group of protesters at an anti-government march in Athens after they attempted to storm a university building.