Crisis of Capitalism

Recommended by Michael Lassiter.

Limits of Human Dignity and Decency

Recently appointed prime minister of Croatia, Jadranka Kosor, urged one of the local branches of RTL television network to fire one of their cameraman for wearing highly insulting t-shirt while recording the latest parliament session. The prime minister said that "all of the representatives are democratically elected to represent the people of Croatia, that they are performing very responsible and selfless public work and that she will not allow individuals to insult them". The TV station promptly fired their cameraman, in spite of the critiques and protests of journalist associations and other organizations. The cameraman tried to explain himself by stating that this was the only clean shirt he had and that he bought it at the stand in USA. It figures.
By the way, prime minister Kosor, when she was appointed a few weeks ago due to the resignation of the officially elected prime minister, was "accused" of having Serbian descent, so leave it to the Serbs to be the everlasting keepers of tradition, morality and human decency.

Breaking the Silence

According to the report by Breaking the Silence, Hamas's cynical conduct of war can no longer be solely blamed for the large number of civilian casualties. The Islamists deployed their fighters in densely populated areas, making it difficult for the Israelis to distinguish between Hamas soldiers and civilians. Many of the wounded and dead are clearly the result of a lesson Israel learned in the Lebanon war of 2006: no hesitation, no scruples...

Some veterans also confirm that the army sent local residents into houses where Hamas fighters were holed up, as a kind of vanguard. This method, known as the "neighbor procedure," is expressly banned in Israel. According to one soldier, his unit placed a gun barrel on the shoulder of a Palestinian and forced him to walk ahead of them into a suspicious building. If this is true, Hamas fighters were not the only ones who misused civilians as human shields...

More at BBC news