America Still Has Sodomy Laws Too

India reinstated a “gay sex” ban, but before you throw stones, remember we have plenty of similar laws in the U.S. today; designers have put forth their best revisionist ideas to address the umbrella’s many deficiencies; meanwhile, Israel is increasingly isolated due to boycotts and sanctions. These discoveries and more below.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that have found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.

Sodomy Laws Still Exist?! News of India’s ban on gay sex sparked outrage in the U.S. Let’s not forget: We still have anti-gay laws

Image Control at Its Worst: The White House Immigration Chat About midway through Wednesday’s immigration chat with Vice President Biden and Domestic Policy Advisor Cecilia Muñoz, it started to seem like the conversation was a tightly controlled event, with the questioners chosen beforehand, even though it wasn’t advertised as such.

Poverty Nation: How America Created a Low-wage Work Swamp For decades, both parties supplanted a push for higher wages with well-intended public aid. The result: calamity

Israel Must Give Up Its Worst-Kept Secret: the Bomb Across the globe, headlines pronounced that a “breakthrough agreement” had been reached in Geneva. Iran’s atomic ambitions had been curbed in exchange for limited sanctions relief, thus deflating the long-standing military standoff.

A Response to Michael Kazin on BDS and Campus Activism (Updated) Writing in The New Republic, Michael Kazin issues a sharp attack on the BDS movement, particularly the recent vote of the American Studies Association (ASA) to boycott Israeli academic institutions.

Goliath: The Book That May Delegitimize Israel’s Apartheid State This coarsening — brutalization, really — of Israeli society is something one imagines Leibowitz would have despised had he lived to see it.

Inventing the Perfect Umbrella Umbrellas shield people from the rain, but the current design is far from perfect.

Israel and Apartheid: Confused? You Will Be The lame excuses made up by Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to go to Nelson Mandela’s memorial on Tuesday have raised eyebrows and wry smiles all over the world.

Swell of Boycotts Driving Israel Into International Isolation Western activists and diplomats are gunning for Israel’s settlements in the Palestinian territories, and if peace talks fail, the rain of boycotts and sanctions could turn into a flood.

NSA Considers Amnesty For Snowden If He Stops Leaks Senior National Security Agency officials in the United States say they’ve considered making a deal with former contractor Edward Snowden that would give amnesty to the leaker charged with espionage if he stops disclosing secret documents.

2 New York City Colleges Draft Rules That Restrict Protests At Cooper Union, it was outrage over a new tuition policy. At City College, it was anger over the closing of a community center.