Portside

Thanks to new technology, we know now exactly which microbes are crawling behind our ears, between our eyebrows, and especially on our feet. Kent Sepkowitz explains the gross new study.

More than two months after the deadly explosion in West, Texas, the state has done almost nothing to prevent future disasters.

Movie: Commie Camp. Just how smart are dogs? Egyptians impatient with 'gimmics of democracy.' Egypt: Epidemic of sexual harassment. Snuggly the Security Bear calms our fear of government snooping.

Mohamed Mursi, though elected president of Egypt, is no democrat. Democracy for him is a bus ride; when he gets to his stop, he's getting off. Egypt's leading left-wing politician, Hamdeen Sabahi, leader of the Popular Current movement who came third in last year's presidential election, said the army had implemented the will of the people and was not seeking power for itself.

The reform-minded senator talks tough, and she knows where the bodies are buried.

South Africa is not a perfect society. Full equality - social and economic - does not exist, control of the country's wealth remains in the hands of a few, so new challenges and frustrations arise. I believe we should be doing far better. Our liberation struggle reached a high point, not its zenith when we overcame apartheid rule.

What kind of South do we want? The Voting Rights Act was a key engine of Southern progress, leveling the political playing field but also improving the South's image and economic success. If conservatives push too hard, it may help tilt the electorate in ways that helps score some quick political victories. In the short term, these attacks could be a spark to mobilize African-American, Asian-American, Latino, young and urban voters to head to the polls in 2014.

Readers Comments - The Expendables -Temps Getting Crushed; The Counter-Revolution of 1776 - Slave Resistance & the Origins of the USA; Poem for Trayvon Martin; Government Spying & Snowden Revelations; Graça Machel; South Africa; Marriage Equality;