NRC: No Suspension of Fukushima-Style Nuclear Reactors

Andrea Germanos Common Dreams
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued a Director’s Decision Friday rejecting an appeal by environmental watchdog groups to suspend operations at the nearly two dozen reactors in the United States that have the same containment system as the ill-fated Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan. Greenpeace charges the NRC is “backing off post-Fukushima fixes at reactors around the country due to fear that added regulatory costs would topple more nuclear plants."

Charlie Hebdo and France's Terrible Symmetry

Diana Johnstone CounterPunch
Even as Israel is aggressively seeking to recruit French Jews to move to Israel, France is undertaking measures to stem the flow of young Muslims to the Middle East to fight with Islamist extremists in Syria and Iraq. There is much talk of restoring authority and “republican values” to the schoolroom. But French leaders need to take a hard look at their own totally incoherent foreign policy, and there is no sign as yet of that happening.

The Saudi Death Sentence That Threatens to Inflame The Gulf

Giorgio Cafiero Foreign Policy in Focus
Last October, Saudi Arabia’s Special Criminal Court sentenced Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, a popular Shi’ite cleric and outspoken political dissident, to death. Now the fate of this Shi’ite cleric hangs over the Gulf like a sword of Damocles. Demonstrations demanding the death sentence be revoked have been held in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Yemen, and the United Kingdom, underscoring the international sensitivity surrounding al-Nimr’s imprisonment and death sentence.

The New York Times: "Distortions, Lies and Omissions" on Ukraine

Patrick Smith Salon
Ukraine is an economic, political and military mess, and a major humanitarian tragedy. But, the New York Times and the U.S. media that follow its lead have provided us with only distortions, lies and omissions about the cynical U.S. role in creating and worsening the Ukraine crisis, and the calamitous global economic impact of the U.S. orchestrated sanctions against Russia.

Time for Another Israeli War on Lebanon?

Belen Fernandez Middle East Eye
Israel’s airstrike that killed Hezbollah and Iranian commanders in Syria last Sunday could be a highly risky pre-election gambit, designed to in part bolster Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s electoral performance in 2015. And the predictable and possibly provoked Hezbollah response may set the stage for a direct Israeli confrontation with Lebanon.

Friday Nite Videos -- January 23, 2015

Portside
Rhiannon Giddens -- She's Got You. Love Letters to Richard Dawkins. 'Alabama' John Coltrane and Martin Luther King. The History of Vaccines. Majority Retort.

Rhiannon Giddens -- She's Got You

From Rhiannon Giddens' debut solo album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, due February 10 on Nonesuch Records. Reviving, interpreting, and recasting traditional material from a variety of sources has been central to Giddens’ career, especially in her groundbreaking work with the Carolina Chocolate Drops.

Love Letters to Richard Dawkins

Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins reads "fan mail" he has received from some of his not-so-great admirers. Parental Discretion Advised.

'Alabama' John Coltrane and Martin Luther King

The composition "Alabama" was released in 1963 shortly after the horrific murder of four little girls in a church in Birmingham, AL. Some jazz writers claim that the tune is not about these four girls. Steve Rowland disagrees and thinks that Coltrane might have based his composition on Martin Luther King's moving eulogy. See what you think!