Salem-News.com Culture articles Page 54

Oregon, Germany Sign Driver License Agreement

Reciprocity deal formalizes current practice between Oregon and Germany.

(SALEM) - Oregon and the Federal Republic of Germany signed an agreement Jan. 17 that continues the practice of waiving drive tests between this state and Germany.

Applicants in Oregon must be at least 18 years old, hold a valid driver license issued by Germany, prove residency in Oregon and are otherwise eligible for a Class C, non-commercial driver license.

Thoughts on a Palestinian Conference

Includes several news items and a review of history.

(BETHLEHEM) - In this week in history: the Filastin newspaper was closed by the Ottoman authorities after Zionist complained in 1914.

Bylaws of the "Muslim-Christian Association" were approved in Jerusalem in 1919, and the first Palestinian Arab Congress opened in Jerusalem in 1919, and over 100 peaceful demonstrators were gunned down by British forces in Baghdad- 1948.

Poem: More Than This

Ignorance is indeed bliss... when details are merciless.

(LONDON) - Welcome to post post-modern times
Where loves comes with a turn and a twist
Nothing is ever straightforward
You're thinking of the age of innocence

Everything is on offer, with a discount if you insist
Try a bit of that, a touch of this
You don't even have to be sincere
And sex may precede any meaningful kiss...

Congress and States Prepare for another Circumcision Battle

MGMbill.org sends proposed genital mutilation legislation to Congress and eleven state legislatures as the legal battle to regulate circumcision heats up.

(SAN DIEGO PRWEB) - Children’s right activists from coast to coast have joined together this month to press more than 2,200 lawmakers in Congress and eleven states to enact the Male Genital Mutilation Bill.

The proposed bill would protect boys from forced circumcision the same way that girls are protected under federal and state laws.

`Snowed in in Seattle`: A Plea for Peace to the White House

Most people know about being "Sleepless in Seattle." Well, I am "snowed in in Seattle!" But even six inches of snow in Seattle don't keep me from becoming steamed when I read the latest news reports on the activities of the U.S. war machine:

(SEATTLE) - At a time when U.S.-Iran tensions are the highest I have experienced in my lifetime, Danger Room of wired.com breaks a news story that a new US commando special operations team is operating near Iran.

Meanwhile, a columnist in Lebanon writes that Syria increasingly looks like Libya.

Archaic Politics In A Modern World

Current events show us that we have a long way to go yet, to reach that point. The question is, what price we will pay before we get there.

(GOLD RIVER B.C.) - One has to wonder about the people who run the world, and those who hope to run it.

Not many of them seem too interested in running it for the benefit of most of the people on it, or for future generations. If they were, things would not be in such a mess today.

Precedent-Setting Human Trafficking Case

Human trafficking also involves violations of other laws, including labor and immigration codes and laws against kidnaping, slavery, false imprisonment, assault, battery, pandering, fraud, and extortion.

(SAN FRANCISCO) - When most people think of human trafficking, they envision victims trafficked into the international sex trade.

Athletes Against Dow Chemical

If the IOC is going to demand certain ethics from athletes in order to preserve the image and ideal of the Olympic movement, then it is unfair these ethos are not demanded of sponsors.

(LOS ANGELES) - U.S. and Canadian athletes, some of whom swam for UCLA, others that were on the Canadian National Swim Team, are drawing attention to the implications of Dow Chemical's Olympic Sponsorship.

The Al Saud runs the country as a family fiefdom

Women are not registered, when they disappear, nobody misses them, and families are not held accountable.

(DUBLIN) - Ib Saud, founding father of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, told his informal adviser, Englishman Harry St. John Philby, that he had married one-hundred-and-thirty-five virgins and about one-hundred other women, but planned, in future, to limit himself to two new wives a year.

The Mexico We Have Found.. Two Years Later

Community input is taken seriously here. An obnoxious neighbor can actually be voted out of the neighborhood.

(SAN BLAS, Mexico) - "They come up here with no money, they can't speak the language, and they expect to find work and a comfortable life. Maybe you should go down to Mexico with no money, not speaking any Spanish, and see if they welcome you with open arms... you wouldn't last six months let alone a year, and that's if you weren't killed first!"

That advice/idea I received while arguing with an anti-immigrant racist in Oregon, May 2008.