Lebanon Loses 78000 Books To Terrorism: Tripoli’s “Al Sa’eh” Library Burned

A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

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2014 is off to a horrible start in Lebanon. The explosion that took place in Beirut yesterday, in the year’s first few days, has been paralleled by another act of terrorism in Lebanon’s northern capital, where extremist gunmen torched the city’s biggest library, Lebanon’s second, burning it to the ground.

They accused the priest running the library, a man who has been fighting to keep that place alive against contractors who worked to dismantle the building in which it resided, of publishing an article that offends Islam. I guess offenses are in the eye of the beholder. In this case, the eyes are for illiterate people who can’t read and who don’t know the value of a book.

This is the supposed article in question:

Srour article

The country is burning, let’s not worry about a library. A lot of people might say that. But the library in question was a true…

View original post 578 more words

Erdogan’s corruption defense falls flat – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

Erdogan’s approach to this scandal, however, is best challenged — surprisingly — by his very own party members. Justice and Development Party (AKP) Burdur Deputy Hasan Hami Yildirim resigned on the last day of 2013, bringing the total resigned deputies from the ruling party to seven.

“It’s necessary to correctly identify the problem and the request,” he said Dec. 31. “The issue is not to cut short Turkey’s growing success story. The issue does not embed a conspiracy, foreign powers’ intervention, a mob or a gang. And it certainly is not a coup attempt against the government. In simple terms, the problem and the request is a call for democracy. The people demand that the ruling party not cover up these corruption allegations, but faces them, to come clean.”

Yildirim added, “If, however, there needs to be a conspiracy, I believe that conspiracy is the government’s approach in presenting anything negative about its policies as a conspiracy.” Other resigning deputies echoed Yildirim and warned the public that the government is trying to cover up the corruption allegations, and that is not acceptable.

via Erdogan’s corruption defense falls flat – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

The Gun Report: January 2, 2014 – NYTimes.com

A 6-year-old girl was shot by a 12-year-old relative at a home in Springfield, Mo., Wednesday night. Deputies said they don’t know what the 12-year-old was doing with a shotgun.

—OzarksFirst.com

A 6-year-old was struck in the foot by a stray bullet in Newport News, Va., early Wednesday. “Stray bullets are nothing new,” a neighbor said. “They had a war going on out here in broad daylight.” The shooting is under investigation.

via The Gun Report: January 2, 2014 – NYTimes.com.

The Gun Report: January 2, 2014 – NYTimes.com

A 2-year-old boy was shot and wounded by his father in Camden, N.J., Tuesday night. Sergio Rivera, 38, told police he accidentally shot his son while inside a vehicle. The boy’s mother and grandmother were also in the car. A 9mm Smith & Wesson handgun was recovered from the scene, along with several Percocet pills. Police said Rivera was uncooperative with detectives.

via The Gun Report: January 2, 2014 – NYTimes.com.

Humans of New York

\”I can’t stand moral absolutism. You know, there’s always that guy who wants to point out that Martin Luther King cheated on his wife— as if he obviously couldn’t have been a great person if he did something like that. Or someone will bring out an inspirational quote, and get you to agree, and then inform you that Hitler said it. As if a good thought couldn’t come from Hitler. Moral absolutism keeps us from learning from the past. It’s easy to say: ‘Hitler was a demon. Nazis were all bad seeds.’ That’s simple. It’s much harder to say: ‘Is that humanity? Is that me?’\”

via Humans of New York.

U.S. Sign Language and Deaf Communication | Pushing Limits

Following the controversy over the botched sign language “interpretation” at December’s memorial service for Nelson Mandela, Pushing Limits probes into what makes a good sign language professional service in this country.

We are seeing more and more deaf interpretation in this country with hardly a word of complaint or dissatisfaction.  What are the latest trends and dynamics?

Deaf and CODA (children of deaf adults) kids making a Mexican hat at a DCARA Cinco de Mayo event.

We take up this and other topics related

to deaf communication with Jim Brune, Executive Director of the Deaf Counseling, Advocacy and Referral Agency (DCARA), and sign language interpreter, Robin Mills.

via U.S. Sign Language and Deaf Communication | Pushing Limits.

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