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November, many of us Americans may reflect on Thanksgiving. It is the quintessential American holiday. English pilgrims, seeking religious freedom, boarded the Mayflower at Plymouth, England to go west - crossing the Atlantic. And they landed at Cape Cod (Massachusetts) on Plymouth Rock in 1620. Half did not survive the winter. But with the providential help of Squanto from the Wampanoag tribe, the pilgrims cultivated the land and forged an alliance with the Native Americans - one that would last for more than 50 years. In 1621, the pilgrims celebrated the harvest with a feast - considered America's first Thanksgiving...

New studies say that lowering the rate of infection helps lead to political liberalization. Greater wealth strongly correlates with property rights, the rule of law, more education, the liberation of women, a free press, and more social tolerance. The enduring puzzle for political scientists is how do the social processes that produce freedom and wealth get started in the first place? Many political theorists have associated democracy with the rise of wealth and the establishment of a large middle class. As Ronald Inglehart, a political scientist at the University of Michigan, and Christian Welzel, a political scientist at Jacobs University...

BEIJING, Dec 23 (ANTARA) - Chinese newspapers, books and websites will no longer be allowed to use English words and phrases, the country`s publishing body has announced, saying the "purity" of the Chinese language is in peril. The General Administration of Press and Publication, which announced the new rule on Monday, said the increasing use of English words and abbreviations in Chinese texts had caused confusion and was a means of "abusing the language". Such practices "severely damaged the standard and purity of the Chinese language and disrupted the harmonious and healthy language and cultural environment, causing negative social impacts,"...

sns-ap-as-indonesia-michelles-handshake JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A conservative Muslim government minister admits he shook hands with first lady Michelle Obama in welcoming her to Indonesia but says it wasn't his choice. Footage on YouTube shows otherwise, sparking a debate that has lit up Facebook, Twitter and the rest of the blogosphere. "I tried to prevent (being touched) with my hands but Mrs. Michelle held her hands too far toward me (so) we touched," Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring told tens of thousands of followers on Twitter.

I am sure that most of you guys would have heard about the honorable gentleman MP Duwaisan and his suggestion that the government should give a Kuwaiti man KD8,000 (US$27,729.67) grant if he marries a Kuwaiti woman. Currently, the government pays KD 4,000 (US$13,864.89) per marriage. Duwaisan wants to double that amount since he claims that living expenses have doubled and lifestyles have also changed. So far, so good. The gentleman went to the extent of proposing that if the man acquires a second wife, he should be given another KD8,000. The condition is that the bride should be Kuwaiti....

Says lower IQ rates will help it deal with smaller U.S. talent poolThe U.S. has arguably been the most desirable place in the world to get a college education with international students from China, India, Japan, and others all traveling to the U.S. with that express purpose. However, there's serious signs of trouble; U.S. citizens' college graduation rates are in danger of falling behind China. Japanese enrollment is down as U.S. universities are slowly falling out of favor. And at least one executive of an Indian firm complained that American graduates were "unemployable". Adding to the list of awkward statistics...

In an interview with ABC News, former Atlanta mayor and Civil Rights legend Andrew Young was asked what he thought about the tea party movement: [H]e’ll all but tell you it’s one sign the country hasn’t reached a post-racial era. “Without making a moral judgment about it, let’s just say ethno-centrism runs so deep in America that we are hardly beyond this,” he said…. The tea party “is motivated by a nativism — an appeal to the good old days and people who are anxious about change and want to go back to the way they would like to think...

Few are laughing in Australia following Robin Williams' joke that its people are "basically English rednecks". His remarks, made on The Late Show with David Letterman, prompted Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to respond on a Sydney radio show. "I think Robin Williams should go and spend a little time in Alabama before he frames comments about people being particularly redneck," said Mr Rudd.

The constitution of the new democratic Russia adopted in 1993 contains a special clause that the nation must have a public military doctrine to mark the end of the time of communist tyranny. A provisional military doctrine was adopted in 1993 and in this document Russia rejected the use of military force to solve international disputes, a notion that is today scorned by the pro-Kremlin press (Izvestiya, February 8). In 2000, the then President Vladimir Putin signed Russia’s first permanent military doctrine, but in fact the text was prepared during the rule of his predecessor Boris Yeltsin. The 2000 military...

On 9 November, a 38-year old Belgian named Muriel, blew herself to pieces in Baghdad near a group of Iraqi policemen, killing five other people. The woman had converted to Islam after marrying a Belgian of Moroccon origin. Her husband was shot down by American troops. The American authorities informed the Belgian authorities of the woman’s identity a few weeks ago, but Brussels kept it secret. Yesterday evening the Franco-Luxemburgian network RTL announced the news. Last night, the Belgian police arrested 14 people. Nine of them are Belgians, mostly of foreign origin, three are Moroccans and two are Tunisians. They...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States is working to rush assistance to Mexico as it fights violent drug cartels, including equipment to help authorities track the narcotics mafia, according to the top US military officer. "We're all working very hard to move the capabilities that are desirable to Mexico as quickly as we can," Admiral Mike Mullen told reporters by phone from his aircraft after holding talks in Mexico. During his meetings with the country's military leadership, Mullen said he discussed how Washington could help in the battle against the powerful cartels, citing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) as a...

H-1B curbs not for Indian IT cos: Infy 11 Feb, 2009 NEW DELHI: Software exporter Infosys which has sizeable onsite employee base in the US said the latest amendment to the H-1B visa rules for the country will not be applicable to it. "We believe the amendments are restricted to the US companies which receive funding under TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Programme) and is not applicable to companies like us. Having said that we have to wait for the law to be passed.

The tomato comes from Peru and spaghetti was probably a gift from China. It is, though, the “foreign” kebab that is being kicked out of Italian cities as it becomes the target of a campaign against ethnic food, backed by the centre-right Government of Silvio Berlusconi.

A hoax artwork which was supposed to celebrate European diversity provoked a full-scale diplomatic incident between Bulgaria and the Czech Republic today. The sculpture, commissioned by the Czech government to mark their EU presidency, mocked Europe’s national stereotypes, but some governments have failed to get the joke. Bulgaria has taken exception to its caricature, which depicts the country as a Turkish squat toilet. The country's ambassador wrote formal letters of complaint to the Czech EU presidency and Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, today. Related Links Officials have demanded that the sculpture be taken down before the exhibit’s public...

"My image of America used to be a country run by the white people, but now it's changing," said 65-year-old taxidriver Kenji Doi, an Obama supporter, as he listened to a radio broadcast on the vote early Wednesday in Tokyo."

SODERTALJE, Sweden -- Behind the wheel of his old Ford Escort, Oshin Merzoian puttered happily along snowy streets. Back home in Baghdad, he said, he always drove at crazy speeds to avoid killers and kidnappers. But here in "Little Baghdad," as this city that has accepted roughly as many Iraqi refugees as the entire United States is called, Merzoian is enjoying the luxuries of living in peace. He doesn't strap on a gun for protection, and he notes that Swedish police worry more about seat belts than roadside bombs. "Even if they remake Iraq from gold and diamonds, I wouldn't...

Obama Addresses Homophobia, Anti-Semitism and Xenophobia Among Black Americansby Jason Horowitz January 20, 2008 In a speech today at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.served as pastor, Barack Obama talked about the existence of institutional racism, the sensationalizing of race "by the media" and the creeping of race as an issue into the presidential campaign. But Obama's speech will likely be remembered for his calling on the black community to do its part to fight homophobia, anti-Semitism and xenophobia. Obama says in the speech: "We have scorned our gay brothers and sisters instead of embracing them,"...

<p>A German state governor has won applause from fellow conservatives for demanding a crackdown on "criminal young foreigners." Immigrant groups and political rivals say he is playing with fire in a debate that reveals the widespread xenophobia obstructing integration in Germany.</p>

The first graders names have been omitted. This is an excerpt from a holiday letter of American family of academic liberals currently living off the government (of Australia, for now). ...other breakthroughs included the training wheels coming off the bike and an early grasp of American politics ... During the APEC meetings in Sydney, the father of his friend XXXXX, who was commander of the Australian troops in Iraq, had lunch with President Bush. XXXXX brought to the daily class 'news time' the official White House atlas given his dad. The teacher said "How special it was for your father...

Among the statements made by the teacher: What part of the country has the highest murder rate? The South. What part of the country has the highest rape rate? The South. What part of the country has the highest … church attendance? The South. Oh, wait a minute. You mean there is not a correlation between these things … You know, you go down to Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, all these states that are as red as they could possibly be, as right-wing Republican as you could possibly be. When you first present these people with the economic policies of the...

The former Mexican president is touting his new memoirs in a cross-country trip Former Mexican President Vicente Fox doesn't get many breaks these days. He was slapped around on The O'Reilly Factor, had a new statue of his likeness yanked down by an angry mob in Veracruz, and along the way promoted his memoirs, which were published in English. Fox, whose U.S. tour is taking him from New York to California and points in between, stopped off in Houston on Monday, where he signed autographs, posed for photographs and spoke of his plans to follow the leads of former Presidents...

...[The building of the Trans-Texas Corridor] is all too sinister for Jerome Corsi, the Vietnam War veteran who helped lead the Swift Boat charge against John Kerry. Corsi has knitted disparate strands of each of these separate road projects to help convince fellow xenophobes such as Pat Buchanan, Phyllis Schlafly, Lou Dobbs and the John Birch Society that the corridor is the first leg of a secret federal project called the NAFTA Superhighway, a four-football-field wide monstrosity that would run from Mexico's Yucatan to Canada's Yukon... Yet even Texas Rep. Ron Paul, a libertarian Republican candidate for president, has fallen...

Ethnic diversity's rocky road http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070827/COLUMNS/70827008 BY MORGAN LIDDICK And On the Right August 27, 2007 If you’re a damn-the-torpedoes Multiculturalist, better fasten your seat belt. Things are about to get bumpy. A few weeks ago Robert Putnam, the Harvard researcher who wrote “Bowling Alone,” a book about the weakening social fabric of the United States, released the results of his new research on the effects of multiculturalism, a doctrine which he had long promoted. They aren’t encouraging. Putnam has been working on his new project for about five years, and hesitated to bring his results into the public eye, so...

WASHINGTON -- Each year, an estimated 400,000 babies are born in the United States to mothers who are illegal immigrants. More than 25 percent of those babies are born in California. Although Congress has never passed a law saying so, no president has ever ordered it, and no court has ever ruled on the issue, each of these babies automatically becomes a U.S. citizen when it takes its first breath. That could change if legislation that Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Gold River, joined in sponsoring in April becomes law. Lungren, who served as California's attorney general from 1990 to 1998 and...

Wikipedia defines Xenophobia as a fear or dislike of foreigners or in general of people different from one's self. A recent report by the Moscow Human Rights Bureau shows where in Russia foreign guests are most likely to encounter xenophobia.

The border is an expensive barrier, new study concludes Barbara Yaffe, Vancouver Sun Published: Thursday, June 14, 2007 The Canada-U.S. border is not our friend. That's the conclusion of a new Fraser Institute study written by author and Simon Fraser University political scientist Alexander Moens. Canadian nationalists traditionally argue that the border is our last defence against cultural and economic absorption by the all-powerful, politically domineering U.S.A. But Moens presents a different, more pragmatic perspective, which has resonance in view of the panic associated with long waits for passports to enable Canadians to keep flying freely to their favourite...

Some people just don't like Mexicans -- or anyone else from south of the border. They think Latinos are freeloaders and welfare cheats who are too lazy to learn English. They think Latinos have too many babies, and that Latino kids will dumb down our schools. They think Latinos are dirty, diseased, indolent and more prone to criminal behavior. They think Latinos are just too different from us ever to become real Americans. No amount of hard, empirical evidence to the contrary, and no amount of reasoned argument or appeals to decency and fairness, will convince this small group of...

BE HERE, OR BE NOWHERE!

GENEVA - Islamic countries pushed through a resolution at the U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday urging a global prohibition on the public defamation of religion — a response largely to the furor last year over caricatures published in a Danish newspaper of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad. The statement proposed by the Organization of Islamic Conference addressed what it called a "campaign" against Muslim minorities and the Islamic religion around the world since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. The resolution, which was opposed by a number of other non-Muslim countries, "expresses deep concern at attempts...

The mammoth globe on the World Trade Bridge spins in the glow of the Texas moon, welcoming hundreds of cargo trucks from Mexico to the United States' largest inland port. Nighttime is the slowest time for the bridge. During the day, literally thousands of trucks cross the span into the U.S., headed for destinations scattered throughout the Midwest and East and north into Canada. Traffic between Laredo and Nuevo Laredo, on Mexico's side of the bridge, is only expected to increase in coming years with Mexico anticipating billions of dollars in new trade, mainly from China, on its way to...

A MASSIVE road four football fields wide and running from Mexico to Canada through the heartland of the United States is being proposed amid controversy over security and the damage to the environment. The "nation's most modern roadway", proposed between Laredo in Texas and Duluth, Minnesota, along Interstate 35, would allow the US to bypass the west coast ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to import goods from China and the Far East into the heart of middle America via Mexico, saving both cost and time. However, critics argue that the ten-lane road would lay a swathe of concrete...

Russia starts deporting Georgian immigrants (Filed: 07/10/2006) President Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia called on the West to denounce Kremlin "xenophobia" yesterday after Russia began to expel Georgian immigrants from its borders in an escalation of the dispute with its southern neighbour. Georgian citizens arrive at Tbilisi airport after being deported from Russia He said the international community should be deeply alarmed after Russia's latest retaliation in a row ostensibly sparked by last week's arrest of four Russian officers accused of spying in Georgia. Some 150 immigrants were rounded up and deported by Russian police yesterday. Officers demanded that schools draw...

John Hawkins apparently has taken on a mission to prove that the Bush Administration is not creating a North American Union to replace the United States, or a new currency -- the Amero -- to replace the U.S. dollar. Recently, in a blog debate on this website, I exchanged views with Mr. Hawkins. When Mr. Hawkins declined to respond in what the editors termed “Round 4” of that debate, I concluded Mr. Hawkins allowed me to have the final word because he lacked a convincing rejoinder. Now, we see Mr. Hawkins wants to carry on the debate but this time...

Xenophobic violence is escalating in both Russia and Ukraine, according to Nikolai Butkevich, research and advocacy director of the Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union. Speaking at RFE/RL's Washington office on June 15, Butkevich detailed the increased presence of neo-Nazi groups within Russia and the failure of local political and law enforcement officials to stem the tide. Meanwhile, he said a similar phenomenon is occurring in Ukraine but is getting very little media attention. WASHINGTON, June 19, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Butkevich has been following the issue of neo-Nazi violence, anti-Semitism, and racial incidents in the former...

[snip] "Señor Weiss," a young girl asked, "why did you steal half our country?" She was referring to the northern half of Mexico lost to the United States in the war of 1846-48. "Just be patient," I half joked. "You'll get it all back." The divisive debate over illegal immigration to the United States is more than just another chapter in America's long love-hate relationship with immigrants. When virtually 100 percent of the rhetoric focuses on the estimated 50 percent of illegal immigrants who come from Mexico, it's a tragic flare-up between two old neighbors whose historic insecurities make reasoned...

The President of the United States, having noticed that the illegal-immigrant issue has rent asunder both the nation at large and his own core constituency, proposes now to dispatch 6,000 National Guard troops to the Mexican border, thereat to provide temporary backup to an overwhelmed Border Patrol in stanching the flow of interlopers currently interloping unchecked. Millions of Americans approve and applaud, as they surely will also cheer the rest of the border-tightening plans Bush outlined in prime time last night: a bigger civilian Border Patrol to allow the troops to resume other duties, security fences to seal the line,...

Atotonilco, Mexico - They name their babies Johnny and Leslie, so certain are they that their kids' future lies in the United States. Returning migrants sprinkle English into their speech as they talk knowingly about job markets in U.S. towns. The U.S. may want to stop illegal immigration, but most Mexicans accept it as a fact of life they can't imagine changing. Mexico's economy, society and political system are built on the assumption that migration and amnesties will continue - and that the $20 billion that undocumented workers send home every year will keep coming, and almost certainly grow. In...

I just saw on Foxnews that President Bush's poll numbers have taken another dive. Gee I wonder why? Maybe the average American isn't thrilled about our President hosting the Red Chinese..complete with marching bands..and a 21 gun salute. Maybe the average American isn't thrilled that 12000 illegal aliens enter the US every day. Screw guest workers, screw the economy..if the terrorist sneak some sort of bomb in here..its all gonna be blown to hell anyways. Maybe the average American isn't thrilled that Iran was named CHAIRMAN of the disarm committee of the UN..and we don't hear A PEEP from our...

An October Surprise? by Patrick J. Buchanan President Bush says Iranians are behind the more lethal IEDs, the roadside bombs killing our troops in Iraq. Rumsfeld warns the Iranian Revolutionary Guard may now be in Iraq. Cheney says Iran will not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. McCain says, “the military option is on the table.” And Israel is getting impatient. Writes Yaakov Katz in the March 10 Jerusalem Post, “The United States has until now not done enough to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, a senior Defense Ministry official has told the Jerusalem Post ...” Katz quotes...

WASHINGTON — Accusing politicians of "pounding their chests" on immigration for short-term political gain, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Tuesday that the tone of the debate had been "hurtful" to him and his Mexican-born wife, Columba. Bush, the younger brother of President Bush, reserved some of his sharpest criticism for conservatives in his own Republican Party, calling it "just plain wrong" to charge illegal immigrants with a felony, as a provision passed by the Republican-led House would do. He also opposed "penalizing the children of illegal immigrants" by denying them U.S. citizenship, an idea backed by some conservatives but not...

CANCUN, Mexico - President Bush said Friday the United States believes it is important to enforce laws protecting borders and told the leaders of Mexico and Canada that was crucial to keeping prosperity alive. ADVERTISEMENT He also reiterated strong support for a "guest worker" program that would allow undocumented immigrants already in the United States to remain in the country to fill low-paying jobs that Americans won't take. Bush declined to say whether he would veto legislation that did not contain such a provision. "I want a comprehensive bill," Bush said at a joint news conference with Mexican President Vicente...

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For a political junkie, the Dubai ports debacle has been a bit like the movie “Pulp Fiction”—just one freaky story inside another, unfolding at a rapid pace and leading to an unexpected ending that made no darn sense and yet was really quite satisfying emotionally. I give it two thumbs way up. Unfortunately for the President, he played the part of “Marcellus Wallace” in “Port Fiction.” He talked tough at the start of the whole thing, but really took it hard in the end. (Bada bing!) And along the way we got to see Chuck Schumer support racial profiling, Hillary...

RBC, 19.12.2005, Moscow 19:03:32.The UN General Assembly has adopted an anti-Nazi resolution, initiated by Russia. Some 114 countries supported the document, with 4 states against and 57 abstentions. The resolution expresses a serious concern about the growing activity of extremist, racist and xenophobic organizations in the world. The Russian Foreign Ministry is concerned that some countries (i.e. the US and Japan) voted against the document, while many countries (all EU members) abstained. States such as Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia abstained as well, although these nations suffered a lot during World War II, the ministry's information and press department claimed.

TOKYO, Nov. 14 - A young Japanese woman in the comic book "Hating the Korean Wave" exclaims, "It's not an exaggeration to say that Japan built the South Korea of today!" In another passage the book states that "there is nothing at all in Korean culture to be proud of." In another comic book, "Introduction to China," which portrays the Chinese as a depraved people obsessed with cannibalism, a woman of Japanese origin says: "Take the China of today, its principles, thought, literature, art, science, institutions. There's nothing attractive." The two comic books, portraying Chinese and Koreans as base peoples...

Brussels - After two weeks of violent urban unrest in France, Muslim communities in the country will face long-term retaliation, a Euro MP said Thursday, urging the French government to take action and condemn revenge attacks against Moslems. French politicians had failed to give immediate assurance that they would support the country's unity, leaving citizens in a state of disarray and shock, British socialist MEP Claude Moraes said. With no ethnic monitoring, France could not know the level of discrimination in the country, Moraes said, comparing the situation in France with Britain. French police also had no guidelines for dealing...

MPAA Chairman Dan Glickman has warned that his organization intends to wage a legal battle against a UNESCO convention passed last week that would allow countries to protect themselves against what they regard as a cultural invasion by America. "If countries start passing laws that are in contravention of World Trade Organization rules, there will be conflict," Glickman told a film industry conference in Beaune, France on Friday. He expressed concerns that some nations will use the UNESCO "cultural exception" to impose limitations on the number of U.S. films that can be distributed in their countries or to impose special...

(Via Geopolitical Review) Europeans Grow More Intolerant of Immigrants-Study VIENNA (Reuters) - Europeans are becoming more intolerant of immigrants and one in five want them sent home, a study released Tuesday by the European Union racism watchdog showed. The study, based on pan-EU opinion surveys between 1997 and 2003, found a significant increase in support for the view that there were limits to a so-called multicultural society. There was also a significant increase in the minority of people who supported repatriating immigrants, to 20 percent, the study said, without providing the scale of either increase. "The European Union is confronted...

Jan. 22, 2005 22:39 | Updated Jan. 24, 2005 18:18 German party protests tribute to victims By ASSOCIATED PRESS BERLIN A top leader of Germany's main Jewish group called on Germans to fight more strongly against far-right groups on Saturday, a day after legislators from a nationalist party walked out of a state parliament to protest a tribute honoring victims of Nazi aggression. All 12 members of the National Democratic Party stood up and headed for the door of the eastern state of Saxony's parliament Friday after parliament president Erich Iltgen called for a moment of silence to mark the...

AJAX, Ontario ROB MacARTHUR, a part-time music promoter, has a cardboard box full of nearly 60 CD's at his bar in this town half an hour east of Toronto, sent to him by independent Canadian musicians hoping for a shot at getting their songs on the radio. For many of these artists the odds are slim, admits Mr. MacArthur, who is a guitarist in country bands himself. The music is good, but there isn't enough space on the radio for everyone, said the 43-year-old, who with his long gray hair and ready smile has the look of an aging country...