It depends on what side of the Atlantic you are

Yes, Europe is, in the main, an economic basket-case, but its people are, at least largely "covered" with decent health schemes. On the other side of the Atlantic, in America? Not so, and even an outcry - and now a legal challenge - to Obama's attempt to bring some sort of decent health "cover" for Americans. Abby Zimet on CommonDreams comments:

"As the US Supreme Court considers whether it's unconstitutional to take care of our own, an instructive look at the bewilderment of many Germans and other Europeans at the phobic and wildly counter-intuitive opposition to health reform in a country that spends more than any other developed nation on health care, ranks last out of 16 industrialized countries in preventable deaths, boasts over 80 million uninsured working-age adults, and professes Christian ideals. If it makes them feel any better: Yeah, we're bewildered too."

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Robert Fisk's predictions for the Middle East in 2013

There is no gain-saying that Robert Fisk, fiercely independent and feisty to boot, is the veteran journalist and author covering the Middle East. Who doesn't he know or hasn't he met over the years in reporting from Beirut - where he lives? In his latest op-ed piece for The Independent he lays out his predictions for the Middle East for 2013. Read the piece in full, here - well worthwhile - but an extract... "Never make predictions in the Middle East. My crystal ball broke long ago. But predicting the region has an honourable pedigree. “An Arab movement, newly-risen, is looming in the distance,” a French traveller to the Gulf and Baghdad wrote in 1883, “and a race hitherto downtrodden will presently claim its due place in the destinies of Islam.” A year earlier, a British diplomat in Jeddah confided that “it is within my knowledge... that the idea of freedom does at present agitate some minds even in Mecca...” So let’s say this for 2013: the “Arab Awakening” (the t...

Palestinian children in irons. UK to investigate

Not for the first time does MPS wonder what sort of country it is when Israel so flagrently allows what can only be described as barbaric and inhuman behaviour to be undertaken by, amongst others, its IDF. No one has seemingly challenged Israel's actions. However, perhaps it's gone a bridge too far - as The Independent reports. The Foreign Office revealed last night that it would be challenging the Israelis over their treatment of Palestinian children after a report by a delegation of senior British lawyers revealed unconscionable practices, such as hooding and the use of leg irons. In the first investigation of its kind, a team of nine senior legal figures examined how Palestinians as young as 12 were treated when arrested. Their shocking report Children in Military Custody details claims that youngsters are dragged from their beds in the middle of the night, have their wrists bound behind their backs, and are blindfolded and made to kneel or lie face down in military vehi...

Mahler's Prodigal Son

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