Portside

Dawkins dresses up bigotry as non-belief. His anti-Muslim tweet is only the latest in a catalogue of smears. He cannot be left to represent atheists.

Morsi and the Brotherhood leadership bear a good deal of the blame for derailing the transition, since a democratic transition is a pact among various political forces, and he broke the pact. But the Egyptian military bears the other part of the blame for the failed transition. Ambitious officers such as Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Morsi’s Minister of Defense, were secretly determined to undo Morsi’s victory at the polls.

Reader comments: Prisons; Labor Unions; Banning Russia from the Olympics - a Very Bad Idea; Remembering Viola Liuzzo; Bayard Rustin & '63 March on Washington; American Jews & Israeli Racism; Student Debt; Announcements: FREEDOM '63 REMIXED - Legacies of the March on Washington - Aug 16 -New York; The Forgotten History of the March on Washington, Aug 22 -Washington, DC - two events; Walmart Workers are Standing Up!; CCDS 7th Convention; Useful graphic on Climate Change

An intimate, occasionally sad and frequently humorous insight into the life of one of the world's best known authors.

The violent clampdown by security forces has all but ended the possibility of a rapprochement with the Muslim Brotherhood. A cross section of Middle East analysts discuss the implications of the latest wave of violence in Egypt (in Al Jazeera)

Bradley Manning didn't hurt us any more than a dentist hurts a patient when removing an abscessed tooth. The brief discomfort that resulted from the WikiLeaks disclosures was necessary to begin the process of healing and reform. It is a process that we do not yet know will be successful, but which began with Manning's decision to leak vital documents to WikiLeaks. And for that, we owe Manning thanks; no apologies necessary.

There is a growing human rights movement across the country, led by prisoners and their families, that names this practice for what it is: torture.

Largest Mobilization of Fast Food Workers in U.S. History May Get Much Bigger.

For 10 years a massive income gap has been widening across Silicon Valley. Last November, however, the residents of San Jose voted in favor of a small but significant change: Raising the city’s minimum wage from $8 to $10 per hour. In Forefront this week, journalist Nona Willis Aronowitz explores the people and policies shaping the economic future of a San Jose that many cities in the Bay Area could look to as a model for economic justice.

In February, as the gay-propaganda law made its way through the Duma, a popular Moscow magazine called Afisha ran a rainbow flag on its cover. Inside were the stories and portraits of 30 gay men and women of Moscow. They were lawyers, entrepreneurs, nurses, and I.T. specialists; there was even a welder named “Sergei Ivanov,” the Russian equivalent of John Smith.