Business news is buoyant. The stock market is bullish. The housing market seems to have rebounded a bit. So why are consumers so glum? Because they're deeply worried about their jobs and their incomes -- as they have every right to be. The job situation is still lousy. More than 20 million people are still unemployed or underemployed.

Israel regularly violates Lebanese air space. Doing so is longstanding. It's also illegal. Incursions sometimes happen multiple times daily. Conflicting reports discussed an overnight border attack.

From seemingly out of nowhre has come the Intrnet -- to be, suddenly, the greatest clobal platform for free expression the world has ever seen. But will it last? Last month, an international conferenc was held that pitted nations seeking greatr governmntal control over the Internet -- led by Russia and China --against countries advocating a hands-off approach which included the United States.

Instead of vilifying the 1%, the Occupy Movement needs to help them see the financial and social harm they do to others. By doing so, we might win a few over to the cause of the Occupy Movement as well as show, through those who don't change, how some of them want does not belong to them.

This article explains S. Korea National Intelligence Service agent's suspected activity during presidential race

Governor Christie of New Jersey responded appropriately to Hurricane Sandy but is still reluctant to make the connection to climate change

Even though the Defense Ministry said its troops stopped offensive operations except self-defense, its soldiers have increasingly sped up the offensive war to a new phase. It is not clear whether the government is saying one thing and doing another or the soldiers themselves are going against the President's orders.

In the debate over whether the President should simply pay bills owed by the United States, missing is the key aspect of whether the Courts would back him up. The bill passed in the House Wednesday, set for passage in the Senate, delays the debt ceiling for four months but ties the action to House and Senate salaries.

*There are Less dangerous, Less Expensive Alternatives toTrying to Get Monster Ships to Inappropriate Ports*

Big step forward for society's ruling rich adding half of the population to its reservoir of cannon fodder as they heavily invest in WMD and their deployment surrounding Iran, China and Russia. But potential recruits should consider how difficult it will be to avoid self-incriminating themselves in obvious crimes against humanity and peace. An Nuremberg style trial is inevitable.

Washington engineered Mubarak's ouster. He fell from grace. He became more liability than asset.

Amos Oz is a noted Israeli academic, author, journalist, and novelist. He's also a vocal Netanyahu critic. More on his recent comments below.

This is a warning about the immigration reform bill.

An explosion took place yesterday in the form of a news story about the Boy Scouts of America. The Christian Right is fuming so much that its airwaves (and FOX News) will not let up on the fact that the Boy Scout of America is reversing its policy on allowing gays to be scouts. The furor (and fumes) will last quite a long time.

Raising the minimum wage stimulates the economy and helps business, yet business groups fight it. They see only a higher wage bill. It's a tragedy of the commons, where individual pursuit of immediate gain harms nearly everyone.

Norman Solomon raises some excellent points on framing and languaging

There is ample evidence to suggest that leading Republican members of the House and Senate are more familiar with the fiction of Ayn Rand than with the self-evident truths of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison or Abraham Lincoln. Rand's books are an ideological touchstone for Republicans who have built their politics around her cold delineation of distinctions between idealized "makers" and disdained "takers."

The NRA Neocons continue to make the GOP look like the party of fear-mongering wannabe militia vigilantes who care more about their long, shiny weapons than they do about human lives. Now they are assaulting the families of the little children who were murdered by a fellow gun-nut in Newtown, CT last month.

Even after the horrors of the War on Terror, Richard Cohen remains conflicted and confused about torture. Steve Breyman develops the concept of "crackpot pragmatism" to explain how this could be so.