Why Are Things As They Are?

We Say Fight Back!

Congratulations on the Publication of

Snow? It’s A good day to listen to the Songs of Joe Hill www.folkarchive.de/hill.html

Killed in Utah 1915

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZJHQqvs6mU

US 46th on Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom index (beneath Romania) rsf.org/index2014/en-index2014.php

American Sniper: What can be learned and taught?  The Kyle played by Bradley Cooper is similar to the one that comes through in his memoir. Cooper refers to Iraqis as “savages” throughout; Kyle sees the entire population of Iraq as the enemy.

It’s a worldview that’s ingrained in Kyle from a young age. In the early scenes of the film, Kyle’s father is lecturing Chris and his younger brother — who has just been beaten up on the playground — at the dinner table. The father’s comments, which could just as easily have been uttered by any of Kyle’s drill sergeants, are worth quoting at length. They are a window not just into Kyle, but the pathological mentality, that is partially responsible for keeping the US at war for a decade and a half with an all-volunteer military:

There are three types of people in this world: sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs. Some people prefer to think that evil doesn’t exist in the world. If there were ever dark on their doorsteps, they wouldn’t know how to protect themselves. Those are the sheep.

Then you have predators who use violence to prey on the weak. They’re wolves. Then there are those who are blessed with the gift of aggression with an overpowering need to protect the flock. These men are the rare breed who live to confront the wolf. They are the sheep dog.

We are not raising any sheep in this family. [The father takes off his belt, throws it on the table, and moves toward Chris and his brother]. I will whoop your ass if you turn into a wolf.

For Kyle, the choice is hardly a choice at all: he must become an aggressive, wooly-eyed sheepdog if he wants to retain his father’s love.  www.jacobinmag.com/2015/01/american-sniper-review/

AIFRTE Condemns Police Attack on Students of SOL, Delhi University

All India Forum for Right to Education (AIFRTE) strongly condemns the vicious attack by the police on students of School of Open Learning (SOL), Delhi University peacefully demonstrating outside Shastri Bhawan for their legitimate demands. The demonstration was occasioned by stubborn attitude of Union Minister of Human Resource Development who has not responded to an earlier memorandum by the students. The matter was urgent as classes had not been held, courses had either not started or been left mid-way. With exams round the corner the students were left with no option but to demonstrate peacefully to get a speedy response.

Prof. Madhu Prasad, Member Presidium and Spokesperson of AIFRTE, gave the following account of the situation:

“I was personally present right throughout the demonstration (which started at 12 noon on 30th January 2015) and was witness to the fact that it was completely peaceful. The students were gathered at the gate and were not disturbing traffic in the area either. Suddenly a police bus turned into the entrance and trapped the students between the closed gate and the bus. Then the police attacked the students and I saw several male police dragging the girls. I immediately intervened verbally and physically to prevent them from touching the girls until policewomen finally turned up. Even then I tried to prevent them from pulling the girls into the bus as they had not done any wrong and were merely demanding their rights as students to meet and submit their memorandum to the HRD Minister. But there was no attempt on the part of the police to be at all reasonable. They abused and roughed up the students and further confiscated the speaker being used by the students. When Alok (a student activist) and I objected to this, they spoke extremely rudely to us too, saying that if we were teachers then why we were instigating the students. Then they dragged Alok into the bus also.”

The Little Red Schoolhouse

Japan’s Leaders Still denying Fascist History as nation re-militarizesPrime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan on Thursday criticized an American textbook that he said inaccurately depicted Japan’s actions during World War II, opening a new front in a battle to sway American views of the country’s wartime history.

Speaking in Parliament, Mr. Abe pledged to increase efforts to fight what he called mistaken views abroad concerning Japan’s wartime actions, when the Japanese military conquered much of Asia. He singled out a high school history textbook published by McGraw-Hill Education that he said contained the sort of negative portrayals that Japan must do more to combat.

In particular, he objected to a description of women forced to work in Japanese military brothels during the war, a highly fraught issue in Japan and elsewhere in Asia. The textbook is used in some public schools in California.  www.nytimes.com/2015/01/30/world/asia/japans-premier-disputes-us-textbooks-portrayal-of-comfort-women.html

Fake Colleges (which ones aren’t?)  From her hometown in India in 2010, Bhanu Challa said she had no reason to doubt that Tri-Valley University was a legitimate American school where she could pursue a master’s degree. Its website featured smiling students in caps and gowns and promised a leafy campus in a San Francisco Bay Area suburb.

Months later, her hands were in cuffs as federal investigators questioned her motives for being in the U.S. Authorities told her that Tri-Valley was a sham school. It was selling documents that allowed foreigners to obtain U.S. student visas, and in some cases work in the country, while providing almost no instruction, according to federal investigators.

“I was blank, totally blank …,” she said, recalling her shock. “I didn’t know what to do, who I could approach.”

Tri-Valley is among at least half a dozen schools shut down or raided by federal authorities in recent years over allegations of immigration fraud. Like Tri-Valley, they had obtained permission from U.S. immigration officials to admit foreign students.  www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_27385999/fake-schools-california-draw-scrutiny-federal-investigators

But most offered little or no instruction or didn’t require all students to attend classes, instead exploiting the student visa system for profit, investigators said.  www.montereyherald.com/general-news/20150129/fake-schools-in-california-draw-scrutiny-of-federal-investigators

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZszE6ffA7uA

Tx Mom Complains. Commie Book Under Review A Texas mother recently voiced opposition to a book about poverty she described as “Marxist,” prompting a committee in Highland Park to review whether the book is appropriate for students.

The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor

US Military to Afghan War Stats: Shut up!  In late December, as they do every few months, American military officials in Kabul sent a trove of data to the office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction for its quarterly report. Over the years, such figures have told an often dispiriting story about Washington’s enormous investment in the country’s security forces, laying out their size, readiness, attrition level and the state of their infrastructure.

Five days later, military officials followed up with an unusual request. Commanders in Afghanistan informed the inspector general’s office that they had decided to classify the bulk of that data. The decision came after the military, late last year, classified a periodic report that the inspector general has used over the years as the primary source to assess the state of Afghan forces. The stated reason? It could give the enemy the upper hand.

“With lives literally on the line, I am sure that you can join me in recognizing that we must be careful to avoid providing sensitive information to those that threaten our forces and Afghan forces, particularly information that can be used by such opposing forces to sharpen their attacks,” Gen. John Campbell, the American commander in Afghanistan, wrote to the inspector general, John Sopko, on Jan. 18.

The threats that Afghan and American troops face in Afghanistan remain all too real. But it strains credulity to believe that insurgents would become more proficient fighters by poring over lengthy inspector general reports about an increasingly forgotten war. Classifying that information unreasonably prevents American taxpayers from drawing informed conclusions about the returns on a $107.5 billion reconstruction investment that, adjusted for inflation, has surpassed the price tag of the Marshall Plan.  www.nytimes.com/2015/01/29/opinion/inconvenient-truths-in-afghanistan.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region&region=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region&_r=0

War Forever As the Empire’s Have no answer to IS’ Grand Strategy: the Caliphate–as nobody can say: Gods don’t make people. People Make Gods. IS Hits Kirkuk  Exploiting a foggy night as cover, Islamic State militants launched a surprise attack on Iraqi Kurdish positions on the outskirts of Kirkuk early Friday, killing a senior Kurdish commander and at least five of his men, security officials in the city said.

The assault was one of the most aggressive undertaken against Kirkuk in months by the Islamic State, the jihadist group that straddles a large stretch of Iraq and Syria. The city, in northern Iraq, is an oil hub that is seen as central to the aspiration of Iraqi Kurdish leaders and that poses an attractive strategic target for the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

Families fled their homes as the fighting intensified, and at one point, the militants stormed an abandoned hotel in the Kirkuk city center.

The deadly foray on Friday demonstrated the continued ability of Islamic State fighters to harass Iraq’s cities, despite a punishing monthslong campaign by Iraqi forces backed by United States airstrikes to dislodge the extremists.

Iraqi and American military officials have claimed recent successes, including killing top leaders and recapturing some territory held by the extremists. But they have also suggested that a victory against the Islamic State could take years, given the obstacles, including a lack of readiness on the part of Iraq’s security forces.   www.nytimes.com/2015/01/31/world/middleeast/isis-launches-surprise-attack-on-kirkuk-killing-top-kurdish-commander.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

Afghans Vote with their Feet for Taliban’s Justice system   Frustrated by Western-inspired legal codes and a government court system widely seen as corrupt, many Afghans think that the militants’ quick and tradition-rooted rulings are their best hope for justice. In the Pakistani cities of Quetta and Chaman, havens for exiled Taliban figures, local residents describe long lines of Afghans waiting to see judges.

“You won’t find the same number of people in the Afghan courts as you do in the Taliban courts,” said Hajji Khudai Noor, a Kandahar resident who recently settled a land dispute through the Taliban in Quetta. “There are hundreds of people waiting for justice there.”

Western officials have long considered a fair and respected justice system to be central to quelling the insurgency, in an acknowledgment that the Taliban’s appeal had long been rooted in its use of traditional rural justice codes. But after the official end of the international military mission and more than a billion dollars in development aid to build up Afghanistan’s court system, it stands largely discredited and ridiculed by everyday Afghans. A common refrain, even in Kabul, is that to settle a dispute over your farm in court, you must first sell your chickens, your cows and your wife.

Countless training programs funded by Western allies for lawyers and judges have become bywords for waste. Laws suited to Western-style democracies have populated the books.

“The problem is we spent money on what we wanted to see, as opposed to thinking about what Afghans wanted to see,” said Noah Coburn, a political anthropologist at Bennington College.  www.nytimes.com/2015/02/01/world/asia/taliban-justice-gains-favor-as-official-afghan-courts-fail.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

US’ Puppet Shiites Still Slaughtering Sunnis for….?  At least 72 people from a majority Sunni village in eastern Iraq were methodically singled out for slaughter this week, according to witnesses and local Sunni leaders, who said the victims were killed by Shiite militiamen who were supporting Iraqi security forces.

A spokesman for Iraq’s prime minister said Thursday that the government was investigating the claims. Some local security officials in Diyala Province have asserted the victims were militants killed in battle by the security forces, denying that sectarian executions had occurred.

But witness accounts suggest that is what happened in the village of Barwanah starting on Monday. Several survivors described seeing a column of troops drive into the village that afternoon, quickly followed by a convoy of militia fighters. The militiamen started calling out specific names of people they were seeking, then began killing.

The murders are a potentially explosive descent into the kind of sectarian violence that led many Iraqi Sunnis to lose all trust in their government and its militia allies, even before the jihadists of the Islamic State began their rapid advance through much of northern Iraq last summer.

In recent months, the new, Western-backed government of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has urgently sought to regain the trust of Iraqi Sunnis, calling the effort an integral part of the campaign to defeat the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

But the government’s conduct of the war has only deepened distrust in some Sunni areas, as Shiite militias, many with Iranian backing, and Kurdish forces have helped to lead the fight against the Islamic State after the Iraqi security forces broke and ran.   www.nytimes.com/2015/01/30/world/middleeast/government-allies-are-said-to-have-killed-dozens-of-sunnis-in-iraq.html

40 More Killed in US Sponsored Ukrainian War  At least 40 people have been reported killed as fighting between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian rebels rages on in the east of the country.

Ukrainian officials say 15 soldiers and 12 civilians died in the past 24 hours. The rebels report 13 casualties.

The separatists also claim to have seized the town of Vuhlehirsk and surrounded the key hub of Debaltseve, but the Ukrainian military denies this.

Meanwhile, urgent truce talks ended in Belarus, but no deal was signed.

Representatives of Ukraine and Russia, as well as rebel envoys and members the Organization for Security and Co-operation (OSCE), took part in the meeting in the Belarusian capital Minsk.

Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, Kiev’s representative at the talks, was quoted as saying that the talks had been “thwarted” by the rebels.

The recent heavy fighting has left a September ceasefire – also agreed in Minsk – in tatters.  www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31074772

War criminal Kissinger warns of new cold war  Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has given a chilling assessment of a new geopolitical situation taking shape amid the Ukrainian crisis, warning of a possible new Cold War and calling the West’s approach to the crisis a “fatal mistake.”

The 91-year-old diplomat characterized the tense relations as exhibiting the danger of “another Cold War.”

“This danger does exist and we can’t ignore it,” Kissinger said. He warned that ignoring this danger any further may result in a “tragedy,” he told Germany’s Der Spiegel.  If the West wants to be “honest,” it should recognize, that it made a “mistake,” he said of the course of action the US and the EU adopted in the Ukrainian conflict. Europe and the US did not understand the “significance of events” that started with the Ukraine-EU economic negotiations that initially brought about the demonstrations in Kiev last year. Those tensions should have served as a starting point to include Russia in the discussion, he believes.   rt.com/news/203795-kissinger-warns-cold-war/#.VMnavtNFlig.facebook

Chile Sentences Two For Murders During US’ Coup Two former Chilean intelligence officials have been sentenced in the murders of two American citizens shortly after the 1973 coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

Pedro Espinoza, a retired army intelligence officer, was sentenced to seven years in the killings of the Americans, Frank Teruggi and Charles Horman, while Rafael González, who worked for Chilean Air Force intelligence, was sentenced to two years of police supervision as an accomplice in the Horman murder. The 276-page ruling was issued on Jan. 9 but was not made public until Wednesday, after all parties had been notified.  Two former Chilean intelligence officials have been sentenced in the murders of two American citizens shortly after the 1973 coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

Pedro Espinoza, a retired army intelligence officer, was sentenced to seven years in the killings of the Americans, Frank Teruggi and Charles Horman, while Rafael González, who worked for Chilean Air Force intelligence, was sentenced to two years of police supervision as an accomplice in the Horman murder. The 276-page ruling was issued on Jan. 9 but was not made public until Wednesday, after all parties had been notified.www.nytimes.com/2015/01/29/world/americas/2-sentenced-in-murders-in-chile-coup.html

The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor

With growing inequality and the civil unrest from Ferguson and the Occupy protests fresh in people’s mind, the world’s super rich are already preparing for the consequences. At a packed session in Davos, former hedge fund director Robert Johnson revealed that worried hedge fund managers were already planning their escapes.   “I know hedge fund managers all over the world who are buying airstrips and farms in places like New Zealand because they think they need a getaway,” he said.

Johnson, who heads the Institute of New Economic Thinking and was previously managing director at Soros, said societies can tolerate income inequality if the income floor is high enough. But with an existing system encouraging chief executives to take decisions solely on their profitability, even in the richest countries inequality is increasing.

Johnson added: “People need to know there are possibilities for their children – that they will have the same opportunity as anyone else. There is a wicked feedback loop. Politicians who get more money tend to use it to get more even money.”,,,But as former New Zealand prime minister and now UN development head Helen Clark explained, rather than being a game changer, recent examples suggest the Ferguson movement may soon be forgotten. “We saw Occupy flare up and then fade like many others like it,” Clark said. “The problem movements like these have is stickability. The challenge is for them to build structures that are ongoing; to sustain these new voices.” (reformers is morning glories—Plunkett)  www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2015/jan/23/nervous-super-rich-planning-escapes-davos-2015?CMP=share_btn_fb

With 2/3rds of Detroit Public/Private Properties Vacant–thousands more foreclosed  Wayne County officials have warned that 62,000 Detroit properties are subject to foreclosure this year because the owners had fallen three years behind on taxes. Even as Detroit has had a flood of foreclosures over the last six years, this year’s number is a record, accounting for nearly one-sixth of all city properties — an unimaginable total in most cities, tax foreclosure experts said.  Some portion of the properties will be put up in the fall for public auction, where prices have sometimes started as low as $500.

“This is the worst year ever,” Ted Phillips, the executive director of the United Community Housing Coalition, which tries to help people avoid foreclosure, told the gathered crowd, gazing out at row after row after row.

Though these were technically “show cause” hearings, offering residents a chance to argue that the county should not foreclose on their homes, the scale made it feel more like an unhappy county fair — complete with workers in yellow vests offering help from an array of nonprofit groups and large signs guiding residents into subgroups like “Nondeed holders including renters” and “Homeowner occupants.” Thursday was the first day of what will be seven days of hearings at Cobo Center, which officials said they had chosen because the proceedings would have outgrown other sites.  www.nytimes.com/2015/01/30/us/a-hearing-on-detroit-housing-foreclosures-draws-a-reluctant-crowd.html

That Worker to Boss Pay Ratio is Trouble even the bourgies Last week, we learned that Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, was paid $9.2 million for 2014. Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase made $20 million. The Starbucks chief Howard Schultz took home $21.5 million. And Viacom said that its chief, Philippe Dauman, received $44.3 million.

For any one of them, it’s a lot of money.

Those numbers are even more pronounced when set against the viral talking point of last week: Oxfam’s study on inequality, which said that those in the top 1 percent were set to control 50 percent of the world’s wealth by next year. That statistic has become a rallying cry for the average worker. (There’s a problem with the math that Oxfam used, which we’ll get to in a moment, but that doesn’t negate the overall message about income disparity.)

While many have contended that chief executives of successful companies deserve handsome pay packages, that assertion does leave hanging the question of how to value the contribution of the average worker in relative terms.  dealbook.nytimes.com/2015/01/26/tricky-ratio-of-chief-executives-pay-to-workers/

The Emergence of Fascism as a Popular Mass Movement

How Guantanamo Diary Got Past Obamagogue’s Censors Some of Slahi’s lawyers have security clearance, and could read the full manuscript, but they are barred from talking about what might be behind the redactions. “These were not conversations that I could have with them,” said Siems.

Siems was never in contact with Slahi as he prepared Guantánamo Diary. Journalists have not been allowed to speak directly to current detainees (although in the book, Slahi claims that his interrogators asked at one point if he would talk to “a moderate journalist from the Wall Street Journal” to “refute the wrong things we’re suspected of”). Military commissions trials at Guantanamo, though open to the media, must be watched from behind soundproof glass, with the audio on a 40-second time delay to allow censors to bleep out any classified information. In 2012, detainee lawyers, the ACLU, and a host of media organizations challenged that “presumptive classification,” but a judge ruled against them.

“That’s the absurdity of this classification regime,” said Shamsi. “There is so much public information about what happened to the prisoners at Guantanamo, yet the government goes out of its way to prevent us from hearing directly from them.”

For Larry Siems, censorship is at the core of Slahi’s story, and while the redactions sometimes impede his narrative, they serve a literary function as well.

“Secrecy was imposed in order for abuse to happen, and then more secrecy was imposed in order to cover it up,” said Siems. “The redactions are like the fingerprints of that longstanding censorship regime.”  firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/01/31/guantanamo-diary-escaped-black-hole-got-past-censors-mostly/

Seattle Teacher Suing for Pepper Spray Police Attack A high school teacher and activist is suing the city of Seattle, claiming police officers unlawfully pepper sprayed him as he left a peaceful rally on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Solidarity for Never

So Many Re-building the Second International–again–in new ways: GREECE  “Left” aligns with Greek Rightists  to form government The right-wing Independent Greeks party said on Monday it would back Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras to be the next prime minister, after he fell just short of a majority needed to govern following Sunday’s poll.

Obamagogue Convicts CIA Whistleblower  Jeffrey A. Sterling, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer, was convicted of espionage charges Monday, for telling a journalist for The New York Times about a secret operation to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program.

The conviction is a significant victory for the Obama administration, which has led an unprecedented crackdown on officials who speak to journalists about security matters without the administration’s approval. Prosecutors prevailed after a yearslong fight in which the journalist, James Risen, refused to identify his sources.

The case revolved around a C.I.A. operation in which a former Russian scientist provided Iran with intentionally flawed nuclear component schematics. Mr. Risen revealed the operation in his 2006 book “State of War,” describing it as a mismanaged, potentially reckless mission that may have inadvertently aided the Iranian nuclear program.

Mr. Sterling faces years in prison.

Liberal advocacy groups have hailed Mr. Sterling as a whistle-blower for taking his concerns about the program to the Senate Intelligence Committee in early 2003, a time when dissenting voices in the C.I.A. were hushed as the country prepared for war in Iraq. The Justice Department and C.I.A., however, deny that characterization. They said the Iran operation was not mismanaged and said Mr. Sterling went to Congress and then the news media as a way to settle personal grievances.

Mr. Sterling managed the Iranian operation. The Justice Department had no direct proof that Mr. Sterling provided the information to Mr. Risen, but prosecutors stitched together a strong circumstantial case. They described Mr. Sterling, who is black, as bitter and frustrated about what he believed was workplace discrimination. Telephone records and emails showed that Mr. Sterling and Mr. Risen talked frequently, and prosecutors argued that only Mr. Sterling had the information, the motive and the opportunity to leak it.  www.nytimes.com/2015/01/27/us/politics/cia-officer-in-leak-case-jeffrey-sterling-is-convicted-of-espionage.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Russian Spies Busted! In a case full of intrigue and clandestine communications, three Russians were charged on Monday with working secretly in New York as agents for Russian intelligence, the federal authorities said.

Two of the Russians posed as official representatives of Russia, attached to the Russian Federation of New York. The third man worked in the Manhattan office of a Russian bank and lived in the Bronx. All three men worked for a division of the S.V.R., the Russian foreign intelligence agency, known as Directorate ER, which focuses on economic issues.

The three Russians — as well as others, unnamed in the complaint, who were said to be working covertly in this country — had been directed to collect intelligence on potential United States sanctions against the Russian Federation and on efforts by the United States to develop alternative energy resources, the complaint said.

Information would typically be passed at outdoor meetings, where one man would typically tell another that he had a book, umbrella or hat to pass on, the complaint said. Then, at the appointed time and place, the handoff would occur: a bag, magazine or slip of paper changing hands.  www.nytimes.com/2015/01/27/nyregion/3-charged-with-working-as-agents-for-russia-in-new-york.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

CIA Ran Torture Center on Britain’s Diego Garcia  The UK government is facing renewed pressure to make a full disclosure of its involvement in the CIA’s post-9/11 kidnap and torture programme after another leading Bush-era US official said suspects were held and interrogated on the British territory of Diego Garcia.

Lawrence Wilkerson, who was chief of staff to Colin Powell at the US state department, said the Indian Ocean atoll was used by the CIA as “a transit site where people were temporarily housed, let us say, and interrogated from time to time”.

In an interview with Vice News, Wilkerson said three US intelligence sources had informed him that the CIA used Diego Garcia for what he described as “nefarious activities”, with prisoners being held for weeks at a time.  …

Diego Garcia’s population was removed during the late 1960s and early 70s and forced to settle on the Seychelles and Mauritius. Since then the atoll has been leased by the UK to the US for use as a military base.

Wilkerson is the latest of a number of well-placed officials who have said that after 9/11 the atoll was also used in the CIA rendition programme.  www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/30/cia-interrogation-diego-garcia-lawrence-wilkerson

Colombian Spy Chief Tried  The former head of Colombia’s secret police, Maria del Pilar Hurtado, has appeared in court in Bogota.

She was detained in Panama on Friday night after turning herself over to the authorities.

Ms Hurtado is facing charges of illegally spying on political opponents of the former Colombian President, Alvaro Uribe.

She fled Colombia in 2010 after the allegations were made public and was granted asylum in neighbouring Panama.

The decision caused outrage in Colombia, especially because of close links between Mr Uribe and the Panamanian president at the time, Ricardo Martinelli.

Last year the Panamanian Supreme Court revoked Ms Hurtado’s

The Magical Mystery Tour

Mystic With Funny Hat Makes Shrine to Patron Saint of Nazis a Basilica (St Theresa is indeed the patron saint of fascists—if you have a “Little Flower” in your Neighborhood)  Pope Francis has bestowed the title of “basilica” upon the historic National Shrine of the Little Flower Catholic Church in Royal Oak, making it only the second church in Michigan and one of 82 in the U.S. to carry the honorary designation.

The honor means the landmark Oakland County church, its facade marked by a mammoth sandstone cross at the intersection of Woodward Ave. and 12 Mile, will get a reconfigured name and have greater significance as a Catholic pilgrimage site. The designation also connotes a heightened relationship with the pope, so the parish will celebrate anniversaries related to the role of the papacy.

The announcement was made first at today’s 4:30 p.m. mass at the church, which counts 3,400 families as parishioners and is one of the largest parishes in the six-county Archdiocese of Detroit.  www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/01/31/pope-names-shrine-basilica/22657465/

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaE1ASWlbBY

Charlie Hedbo Redux KABUL, Afghanistan >> A protest in the Afghan capital, Kabul, Saturday against the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, turned into a violent confrontation between riot police and demonstrators, police said.

Farid Afzeli, chief of the Kabul police department’s criminal investigations division, said several hundred demonstrators gathered in eastern Kabul Saturday afternoon to protest the magazine’s ongoing practice of running satirical caricatures depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

Afzeli says the protest started peacefully, but says a group of armed infiltrators began blocking roads, throwing rocks and shooting at police officers on the scene. Police responded by calling in reinforcements and firing in the air to disperse the crowd, he said.

At one point, the crowd attempted to attack several government buildings and a local bank  www.presstelegram.com/general-news/20150131/anti-charlie-hebdo-protest-in-kabul-turns-violent

The Best and Worst Things in the History of the World

www.petapreview.com/4preview/mural_time_lapse_v1.asp

Michigan Lottery Where Winners are Losers Who Cannot Be Winners  (and what about all that money for the schools?) The Michigan Lottery Bureau is cracking down on lottery retailers and their family members who frequently cash in big prizes on behalf of their customers.

Some lottery retailers buy discounted tickets from winners who don’t want to cash in their own for various reasons, said lottery spokesman Jeff Holyfield. The retailers or others working in the stores then pocket the difference between what they paid for the winning ticket, and what it’s actually worth. And the ticket buyers get cash — albeit less than the full amount — while flying under the radar of lottery and tax agencies, and others that may stake a claim to part or all of the prize.  www.detroitnews.com/story/business/2015/01/29/lottery-probing-retailers-win-big/22565189/

So Long

Co-creator of the Pill  Carl Djerassi, an eminent chemist who 63 years ago synthesized a hormone that changed the world by creating the key ingredient for the oral contraceptive known as “the pill,” died at his home in San Francisco on Friday. He was 91.

His son, Dale, said the cause was complications of liver and bone cancer.

Dr. Djerassi (pronounced jer-AH-see) arrived in America as World War II engulfed Europe, a 16-year-old Austrian Jewish refugee who, with his mother, lost their last $20 to a swindling New York cabdriver. He wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt, asking for assistance, and obtained a college scholarship. It was a little help that made a big difference.

Dr. Djerassi wrote books, plays and 1,200 scientific articles; taught at universities for five decades; created an artists’ colony in California; and obtained a patent on the first antihistamine. His work on the science of birth control helped engender enormous controversies and social changes, altering sexual and reproductive practices, family economics and the working lives of millions of women around the world. … “Yes, I am proud to be called the father of the pill,” he told Nicholas Wroe of The Guardian in 2000. “But identifying scientists is really only a surrogate for identifying the inventions or discoveries. Maybe it is true that Shakespeare’s plays would never have been written if it wasn’t for Shakespeare. But I’m certain that if we didn’t do our work, then someone else would have come along shortly afterwards and done it.”                www.nytimes.com/2015/02/01/us/carl-djerassi-dies-at-91-forever-altered-reproductive-practices-as-a-creator-of-the-pill.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news