Another example of America's poor justice system

From CommonDreams:

"In a rare win for sanity, a Florida appeals court has ordered a new trial for Marissa Alexander, the African-American woman sentenced to 20 years after firing a warning shot into a wall during a dispute with her abusive husband just days after she'd given birth. Alexander described the shot as "the lesser of two evils" after he told her, “Bitch, I’ll kill you” - a clearer statement of intent than George Zimmerman gave Trayvon Martin, not many miles away - but the jury rejected her self-defense argument."

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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...

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Mahler's Prodigal Son

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