Glenn Beck's capitol offenceNever mind the Fox News host's march on Washington, it's his bilious soundbite politics that really insults the American public Michael P Jeffries guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 August 2010 Article history Fox News host Glenn Beck, who will be joined on his march on Washington by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin. Photograph: Jemal Countess/Getty Images   Glenn Beck has constitutional rights, including the right to free speech – which he exercises regularly. These exercises include calling the Barack Obama a racist. As documented on Thursday night's edition of the Colbert Report, Beck has also compared himself to Gandhi and Jesus. This weekend, Beck will step further out on his limb, as he, Sarah Palin and others descend on the capitol to speak on the 47th anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.There is no legitimate debate as to whether Beck and company have the right to public assembly, just as there is no debate as to whether people have the right to build a mosque near the World Trade Centre site. Beck's rights are not at stake, but as a range of commentators observe, he is profoundly wrong to choose this date for such an event. Ben Adler points out a disturbing pattern with respect to recent racial controversies. First, someone who identifies as conservative does or says something offensive. Liberal and progressive objectors react as they should, explaining why the action is hurtful. In response, the offender apologises and/or resigns, which leads to rightwing counterattacks on political correctness and "liberal media" double standards.In this context, it seems unnecessary to rehash exactly what is wrong with the upcoming march, but it is worth pointing out that this is not simply a matter of racial insensitivity. Beck's…

 Junk food could be addictive 'like heroin'Rats became 'hooked' on sausage and cheesecake in same way as drug abusersBy Steve Connor, Science EditorMonday, 29 March 2010Read Article

  At the Iraq war's end, a shrug of uncertainty
By David Ignatius
Thursday, September 2, 2010
BAGHDAD   The images for ending America's war in Iraq were appropriately tentative rather than triumphal: The president spoke in Washington of turning a page; the vice president talked here of starting a new chapter; the defense secretary said it was too early even to judge whether the war was worth it. But the politicians and generals who gathered here Wednesday for a transition ceremony agreed on the fact that matters most to the Iraqi and American people, which is that the U.S. combat phase of the war is indeed over -- after more than seven years of fighting, a trillion dollars and more than 4,000 American combat deaths. An invasion that began in 2003 with a false rationale ended with a shrug of uncertainty. The guarded language used to mark the end of combat was appropriate, for Iraq is in many ways an unfinished war. Its ultimate success or failure won't be clear for some years, when we can see whether Iraq has sustained its new democracy or plunged back into sectarian strife and political chaos. Defense Secretary Bob Gates offered a conditional response when he was asked whether the war justified its cost: "I think that it really requires a historian's perspective in terms of what happens here in the long run." Vice President Biden, too, eschewed upbeat political rhetoric when he said at the ceremony in one of Saddam Hussein's marble palaces that the Iraq war had been "as complicated as any in our history." He quoted the military strategist Karl von Clausewitz by saying "war is the realm of uncertainty," suggesting that this precept applies, sometimes, even to outcomes. Iraqis who fear (or in…

Coming to Britain, church with a mission to demonise homosexuals American sect plans first demonstration in UK over play about gay murder victim By Jerome Taylor
Wednesday, 18 February 2009  A notorious Christian fundamentalist church based in America has threatened to hold its first anti-gay rally in Britain to protest against a play about a homosexual student. Followers of the Westboro Baptist Church, a virulently homophobic denomination which pickets the funerals of Aids victims and soldiers in the US with “God Hates Fags” billboards, have vowed to protest on Friday outside a sixth-form college in Basingstoke, which is putting on a performance of The Laramie Project. The group yesterday claimed it had secretly dispatched followers to the UK to avoid being denied entry to the country under Britain’s anti-hate laws. Related articles Jerome Taylor: Louis Theroux is an 'unclean bird' says 'God Hates Fags' group The play recreates the final days of Matthew Shepard, a gay student from Wyoming who was murdered by two homophobic thugs. Members of the Westboro Baptist Church, which is predominantly populated by founder Fred Phelps and his immediate family, shot to international fame and widespread notoriety when they picketed Mr Shepard’s funeral in 1998, using the opportunity to promote their belief that homosexuals are destined for hell. In recent years, the members have caused even wider outrage by protesting at the funerals of American servicemen and women, who the church claim have died because God is punishing the West for its acceptance of homosexuality. If the protest goes ahead, it will be the first time that the globally reviled church has held protests outside North America. It will also place enormous pressure on the Government over whether the sect’s followers should be allowed into…

 The Martin Scorsese interview   The director's lifetime’s work has been shaped by the passion of an evangelist, he tells Mick Brown. Reflecting on his childhood in New York’s Lower East Side, Scorsese once remarked that he was raised with gangsters and priests. 'And now, as an artist, in a way, I’m both a gangster and a priest.’  Read Article