Opinion

Yigal Amir assassinated Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 because other Israeli leaders gave dire warnings about Rabin’s peace plans. The heated rhetoric encouraged him to kill the country’s leader to prevent peace. In the US, right-wing leaders are now accusing Sen. Obama of dangerous policies.

The US attacks Pakistan again, still no policy discussions in the US about the benefits and costs of invading Pakistan.

“The 33 banks signed up so far plan to pay shareholders about $7 billion [in dividends] this quarter. Companies generally try to pay consistent dividends and, at the present pace, those dividends will consume 52 percent of the Treasury’s investment over the initial three-year term.”

Venezuela now has a satellite. Which global superpower power and space pioneer launched it? China. Meanwhile in the US, science funding is down.

“Pirates hijacked a Turkish ship with 20 crew off the coast of Somalia but at least six other ships have fended off pirate attacks in the past two days.”

Israel destroyed 25 homes in the West Bank today. A court order was due in two days to determine if the homes could stay. The 350 Bedouins had been living in the area for 50 years.

Some straight talk about the costs and benefits of invading Syrian and Pakistan: not much benefit and a lot of costs.

A US Federal Court in Miami convicted Charles “Chuckie” Taylor Jr. of torturing people while he lived in Liberia.

The UN General Assembly voted 185-to-3, with 2 abstentions, to call on the US to end the embargo of Cuba. The American ineffective 47-year embargo only hurts US credibility; it has not ended communism in Cuba.