To address issues of international violence, first abolish the death penalty domestically

Execution of Woman in Iran

The United States usually ranks in the top five nations using the death penalty. This is the company that we keep...

An open internet is crucial to the interests of the free world

• WSJ -- The UN Trumps Silicon Valley

  "By lobbying for ‘net neutrality’ regulations, big technology companies pave the way for authoritarian governments to censor the Internet."

• Circleid.com -- Secretary Pritzker’s address to ICANN 51

  "The themes of the growing importance of Internet Governance and the U.S. government's steadfast commitment to defense of the multistakeholder model, as well as the connection between maintenance of an open Internet and fostering free speech and economic growth, were key elements of Secretary Pritzker's address..."

A Complicated Vacuum and Turmoil in the Middle East

• BBC -- Saudi Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr 'sentenced to death'

  A Death Penalty in Saudi Arabia Reflects on larger Middle East Conflict

• BBC --Libya turmoil: Benghazi hit by air strikes and clashes

  A power vacuum and struggle in Libya

• BBC -- Iraq crisis: MPs complete anti-IS government

  Iraqi MPs have approved new defence and interior ministers, completing a unity government that is battling the spread of Islamic State militants.

• BBC -- Islamic State Conflict

  The struggle in maps

The Challenge of ISIS

• Thomas Freidman -- International New York Times
  I.S. = Invasive Species

  "Today, ISIS — the foreigners and locals together — is putting pressure on all of Iraq’s and Syria’s native species with the avowed goal of reducing the diversity of these once polycultural societies and turning them into bleak, dark, jihadist, Sunni fundamentalist monocultures."

• Charles Krathammar -- National Review
  Erdogan’s Double Game - Our “ally” Turkey supports jihadists while joining the U.S.-led coalition against them.

  "No one can match Stalin for merciless cynicism, but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey is offering a determined echo by ordering Turkish tanks massed on the Syrian border, within sight of the besieged Syrian town of Kobani, to sit and do nothing."

Israel and Palestinian Authority UN Speeches

• Abbas' UN Speech

• Netanyahu's UN Speech

Will We Hoist Ourselves On Our Own Petard

• Medsacape -- Dr Emanuel's Death Wish Harms Rather Than Helps

  “Dr Emanuel, of all people, should understand its power. When he writes that having "an [age 75] deadline forces each of us to ask whether our consumption is worth our contribution," Dr Emanuel creates fear.”

• The Atlantic -- Ezeliel Emanuel -- Why I hope to die at 75

  An argument that society and families—and you—will be better off if nature takes its course swiftly and promptly.

• Medscape -- Physician-Assisted Death Gets a Second Look