The 10 Hottest Private Companies in Tech [REPORT]

The 10 Hottest Private Companies in Tech [REPORT]

9 Killed as Israel Clashes With Palestinians on Four Borders - NYTimes.com

9 Killed as Israel Clashes With Palestinians on Four Borders - NYTimes.com Every year in mid-May many Palestinians mark what they call Nakba, or the catastrophe, the anniversary of Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948 and the start of a war in which thousands of Palestinians lost their homes through expulsion and flight.

But this is the first year that Palestinian refugees in Syria and Lebanon tried to breach the Israeli military border in marches inspired by recent popular protests around the Arab world. Here too, word about the rallies was spread on social media sites.

“The Palestinians are not less rebellious than other Arab peoples,” said Ali Baraka, a Hamas representative in Lebanon.

Officials and analysts have argued that with peace talks broken down and plans for a request of the United Nations to declare Palestinian statehood in September, violence could return to define this conflict, which has been relatively quiet for the past two years.

“This is war, we’re defending our country,” asserted Amjad Abu Taha, a 16-year-old from Bethlehem as he took part along with thousands in the West Bank city of Ramallah near the main military checkpoint to Israel. He held a cigarette in one hand and a rock in the other. Hundreds of Israeli troops using stun guns and tear gas roamed the area.

In Gaza, a march toward Israel also resulted in Israeli troops shooting into the crowd and wounding dozens. The Hamas police stopped buses carrying protesters near the main crossing into Israel

Red State: How the U.S. Went $10 Trillion in Debt in a Decade | BNET

Red State: How the U.S. Went $10 Trillion in Debt in a Decade | BNET
In 2001, the Congressional Budget Office projected that the U.S. government would erase its debt by 2006 and sport a hefty $2.3 trillion surplus by 2011. A decade later, we’re some $10 trillion in the red — the deepest hole relative to the size of the economy since 1950.

The World's Most Valuable and Fastest Growing Brands - Derek Thompson - Business - The Atlantic

The World's Most Valuable and Fastest Growing Brands - Derek Thompson - Business - The Atlantic

Eric Margolis: Bin Laden's Real Legacy

Eric Margolis: Bin Laden's Real Legacy: "Bin Laden is dead, but bin-Ladenism lives on. We must remember that Osama's primary goal was to end Western domination of the Muslim world, and exploitation of its resources, which he claimed were being plundered. The Western-backed dictators, generals and kings that ruled the Muslim world as overseers for foreign interests had to be overthrown, proclaimed bin Laden"

Summer McDonald: Birth Certificate One Week, Death Certificate the Next

Summer McDonald: Birth Certificate One Week, Death Certificate the Next: "I just don't find news reports of the violent death of anyone a reason to celebrate and/or joke. Seriously, folks, this is why they hate us."

Daily Kos: Founding Fathers and Wealth

Daily Kos: Founding Fathers and Wealth: "Republics, they concluded, require an equitable distribution of wealth. Where wealth concentrates, political power can never be democratically shared. Locke's conception of human nature was that we are capable of self-rule - that is, especially through the facility of reason, arguing that individuals can be (largely) trusted to manage their own affairs in ways that are (more or less) consistent with the interests and well-being of others. However Hobbes suggested

if human beings are primarily self-interested and desire-driven - we are not capable of self-rule. On the contrary: our ruthless competition with one another to satisfy individual desires will quickly lead to what Hobbes calls 'the war of each against all,' a 'state of nature' in which life is 'nasty, brutish, and short.' Hobbes' conception of human nature leads us to an either/or: either we enjoy freedom from society and its laws - resulting in chaos; or we give up this freedom for an authoritarian regime - and enjoy a social order established by force. By contrast, if Locke is right - if human beings are naturally rational. social, and thus capable of self-rule - then we don't need an authoritarian regime to save us from ourselves. For Locke, our reason is crucial precisely as it is able to determine for us appropriate goals or en"