Portside

Cratchit handed Scrooge a leaflet, which the old man perused nervously. It listed the workers’ demands: a living wage, health benefits, safe working conditions, retirement pensions. “What?” bellowed Scrooge. “Have you all gone mad?”

The tale of the 1914 Christmas Truce survived through the letters and photos of soldiers who, along 600 miles of trenches, suspended war and shared Christmas - with their enemy. The war to end all wars did the opposite, sowing seeds of future ones. Industrial warfare - bombing cities; using chemical poisons; and a punitive peace treaty, with the winners dividing up the empires of the losers - all but guaranteed that future conflicts would be settled by military force.

The New York Times editorial - in the paper of record - demanded that those responsible for the vicious torture policies be brought to trial. Any credible investigation should include former Vice President Dick Cheney; Mr. Cheney's chief of staff, David Addington; the former CIA director George Tenet; and John Yoo and Jay Bybee, the Office of Legal Counsel lawyers who drafted what became known as the torture memos. There are many more names that could be considered.

Friday’s actions aren’t going to leave its stores empty or its business model overhauled. So what would make them a success from the perspective of the labor activists?

As we said, the police have a lot of explaining to do.

I went into Monday uncertain whether Michael Brown's killing was murder or a legally (if not morally) justified shooting into which the rage and righteous indignation over generations of police killings of black men - continuing right up to today - was being poured. After reading Wilson's testimony, I felt pretty confident that Wilson was a liar - at least about critical elements of his story.

The ultimate aim is not to win over more believers, but to produce a new kind of person: the Muslim Brother. This is a person striving for a new world through a spiritual struggle that reproduces the experience of early Muslims.

With a new generation of anti-racist leaders emerging, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor looks at how the movement growing out of Ferguson can confront police violence.

Madison teachers recertify their union. Governor Scott Walker's anti-labor legislation requires 51percent of voters to vote for their union every year.