An Israeli bookstore chain says it has pulled a book highly critical of Jewish settlers in the West Bank after customers complained about it.
The book calls the settlers "hypnotized zombies" and attacks the Israeli right for its strong ties to the them. The Tzomet Hsfarim chain packaged the book with an Israeli flag for independence day next week.
TVNL Comment: Contrary to the headline, the book does NOT attack settlers. It is CRITICAL of settlers. Israel's concept of freedom of speech apparently excludes those who oppose settlements in the occupied territories.
First there was product placement. Now there's "behavior placement," the planting of subtle messages in popular TV shows to encourage certain viewer behavior — such as healthy eating or eco-conscious habits — and thereby convince sponsors that their brands will be associated with "feel-good, socially aware" shows. NBC has owned up to the practice, reports The Wall Street Journal, as part of its Green Initiative: If "Tina Fey is tossing a plastic bottle into the recycling bin," the theory goes, audience members will be more apt to do the same. Innocuous or "Orwellian"?
Did you ever wonder why such an alarmingly high percentage of Americans are obese, diabetic, depressed and suffering from cancer, heart disease, kidney disorders and skin problems? Now consider the fact that Americans pay more per capita for health care than any other nation in the world. Americans pay the highest prices, by far, for medications, medical imaging scans, blood work, surgeries, chemotherapy and hospital stays. And yet what does America have to show for it? The most universally diseased population in the world -- and a nation on the verge of bankruptcy caused in part by mainstream medicine.
In 2009, the worst economic year for working people since the Great Depression, the top 25 hedge fund managers walked off with an average of $1 billion each. With the money those 25 people "earned," we could have hired 658,000 entry level teachers. (They make about $38,000 a year, including benefits.) Those educators could have brought along over 13 million young people, assuming a class size of 20. That's some value.
U.S. Special Operations Forces on a training mission in Pakistan are playing an expanded but largely unseen role in the country's counterinsurgency campaign, working with paramilitary units to "hold and build" tribal areas as militants are cleared out.
Director James Cameron and actress Sigourney Weaver are in Brazil to protest against a proposed dam in the Amazon that would be the world's third-largest hydroelectric project. The Hollywood celebrities will join about 1,000 demonstrators in Brasilia's streets Monday as they urge the government to halt the planned Belo Monte project.
Classified documents reveal that the Israel Defense Forces had committed war crimes in the West Bank, Anat Kam, the former soldier indicted for espionage over an alleged theft of top secret material, told the court earlier in the year, according to police documents released allowed for publication Monday at the request of Haaretz.
The US military has warned that surplus oil production capacity could disappear within two years and there could be serious shortages by 2015 with a significant economic and political impact.
The World Health Organisation on Monday conceded shortcomings in its handling of the H1N1 swine flu pandemic, including a failure to communicate uncertainties about the new virus as it swept around the globe.
