Nat Hentoff – beloved civil libertarian, Constitution expert, author, columnist and jazz writer – whose work spanned seven decades – has died. He was 91.
Hentoff, a WND weekly columnist since 2008, offered in his writing a compelling but unique mix of Americanism, undying reverence for the Bill of Rights and an uncompromising opposition to state-sanctioned killing – whether of the innocent in the womb or the convicted on death row.
“Knowing Nat Hentoff has been one of the biggest personal blessings I have experienced through my 40-year journalism career,” said WND Editor Joseph Farah. “I admired his work tremendously, first as a young radical left-winger and later as a born-again Christian liberty lover and founder of WND.com. I was surprised that the lifelong progressive became one of WND’s staunchest defenders and advocates. That’s because Nat truly loved liberty and people who were willing to fight for it. He always championed the underdog, and that showed through his commitment to life as well as liberty. I will miss his counsel. I will miss his optimism. And I will miss his friendship.”
Born in 1925 to Jewish parents in Boston, Massachusetts – which he called “the most anti-Semitic city in the country” – Hentoff graduated from the Boston Latin School and earned a B. A. at Northeastern University. He did graduate work at Harvard and was a Fulbright fellow at the Sorbonne in Paris.
In the 1940s, Hentoff began radio broadcasting in Boston, hosting two programs, “JazzAlbum” and “From Bach to Bartok.” His writing career began with Down Beat magazine as he covered the jazz music scene in the 1950s. In 1958 he co-founded The Jazz Review.
Hentoff’s first book, co-authored with Nat Shapiro, was published in 1955. “Hear Me Talkin’ to Ya: The Story of Jazz by the Men Who Made It” included interviews with that era’s jazz leaders, including the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. He also did some jazz record producing during that time.
Also in the ’50s, Hentoff began writing a column for alternative-weekly pioneer The Village Voice, a feature that continued for 51 years, until 2008. His column, dubbed “Sweet Land of Liberty,” has been syndicated by United Media. He also wrote for The Progressive, Editor & Publisher and the Wall Street Journal, among many other publications.
Hentoff’s undying support of education, and specifically civics classes in public schools, is evidenced by the titles of two of his books, “Does Anybody Give A Damn?: Nat Hentoff on Education” and “Our Children Are Dying.” He lectured at schools from the elementary to university level and taught courses in journalism and the Constitution at Princeton University and New York University.
Wrote Hentoff in January 2015: “I don’t know whom I’ll vote for president in 2016. But if any candidate convinces me that he or she has believable plans for increasing students’ love of learning, I – despite arthritis – will be at the polls early.”
The author or co-author of at least 20 books, Hentoff’s latest was “Boston Boy: Growing up with Jazz and Other Rebellious Passions,” published in 2012. Also published that year was his book “The First Freedom: The Tumultuous History of Free Speech in America.”
Defying pat ideological labels, Hentoff passionately fought battles across the political spectrum, always stressing liberty and the Bill of Rights.
Explained Kurt Loder in Reason magazine: “Although he started out on the political left, Hentoff developed points of view over the years – especially during his long tenure at New York’s Village Voice – that alienated many leftists. Usually antiwar, he supported the U. S. invasion of Iraq as a humanitarian enterprise. And his unflagging opposition to capital punishment ultimately led him to oppose abortion as well.”
Indeed, Hentoff’s pro-life stance got him in trouble with the left on more than one occasion, including with some colleagues at The Village Voice. His conversion to an opponent of abortion occurred in the 1980s when he was reporting on the case of Baby Jane Doe.
Wrote Mark Judge for RealClearReligion in 2012: “Hentoff dug into the case and the abortion industry at large, and what he found shocked him. He came across the published reports of experiments in what doctors at Yale-New Haven Hospital called ‘early death as a management option’ for infants ‘considered to have little or no hope of achieving meaningful “humanhood.”‘ He talked with handicapped people who could have been killed by abortion.”
Speculated Judge: “By accepting the truth about abortion, and telling that truth, Nat Hentoff may be met with silence by his peers when he goes to his reward. The shame will be theirs, not his.”
In February 2009, Hentoff joined the libertarian Cato Institute as a senior fellow.
Hentoff – who often preceded a statement of fact in his writing with “Dig this:” – was awarded the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award in 1980 for his columns on law and criminal justice. In 1985, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of laws by Northeastern University and in 1995 the National Press Foundation’s Award for lifetime distinguished contributions to journalism. In 1999, Hentoff was a Pulitzer finalist for commentary.
In 2004, the U. S. National Endowment for the Arts named Hentoff Jazz Master, the first non-musician to win then award, and the following year he was honored by the Human Life Foundation at its annual “Great Defender of Life” dinner.
Hentoff worked with the Jazz Foundation of America to support the needs of the nation’s elderly jazz and blues musicians.
Regarding the possibility of retiring, Hentoff in June told WND a story about a conversation he once had with bandleader Duke Ellington:
“I said to him, ‘Duke, you don’t have to keep going through this (touring, etc.). You’ve written a lot of classics. You can retire on your ASCAP income.’
“Duke looked hard at me and responded, ‘Retire? To what?’” – a question Hentoff vigorously reiterated in relation to his own future.
Farah summed up Hentoff’s inestimable impact: “There was no greater defender of the First Amendment than Nat Hentoff.”
Read Hentoff’s WND columns, archived in perpetuity.

Similarity rank: 6.5

Sentiment rank: -1.1

© Source: http://www.wnd.com/2017/01/liberty-legendary-nat-hentoff-dies-at-91/
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

A car bomb in Iraq has struck a market in eastern Baghdad, killing at least 11 people and injuring dozens more.
Interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan was quoted as saying a security guard fired on a suspicious vehicle and the driver then blew it up.
So-called Islamic State (IS) said it was behind the blast, in a statement on its Amaq news agency.
It is the latest of several targeting Shia Muslim districts of Baghdad. A similar attack on 2 January killed 35.
The latest attack struck the main vegetable market in the primarily Shia Muslim Sadr City district.
There has been an increase in IS bomb attacks on civilians since the group came under increasing pressure from government forces in the areas it controls in the north and west of Iraq.
Iraqi special forces and their Shia militia allies have been trying to drive IS from its stronghold in the northern city of Mosul. They entered eastern districts in November but IS have since slowed their advance towards the centre.
The group also targets areas populated by the Shia as it sees them as apostates.
Five issues which shaped the Middle East in 2016
Battle for Mosul: The story so far

Similarity rank: 11

Sentiment rank: -30.1

© Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-38546497
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

The Mail on Sunday newspaper posted the footage showing the embassy employee telling an undercover reporter from Al-Jazeera that „I want to take down… the Deputy Foreign Minister“ (Alan Duncan) — a long-time critic of Israel, and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s second-in-command.
Duncan was „doing a lot of problems,“ he added.
The embassy issued an immediate apology, saying it „rejects the remarks concerning Minister Duncan, which are completely unacceptable“.
„The comments were made by a junior embassy employee who is not an Israeli diplomat, and who will be ending his term of employment with the embassy shortly,“ it added.
Ambassador Mark Regev apologised personally to Duncan on Friday, according to the embassy. Britain’s Foreign Office confirmed they had received an apology, and that it now considered „the matter closed“.
The footage was recorded at a restaurant opposite the Israeli embassy in Kensington, west London, during a meeting attended by Maria Strizzolo, senior aide to Conservative Education Minister Robert Halfon.
Strizzolo spoke of her influence in helping Halfon become a minister, prompting the embassy staffer to ask her „can you do the opposite stuff as well? „
However, Strizzolo said Duncan would be „impossible to rebuff“ due to having powerful „friends“, but then suggested „a little scandal, maybe? „
The embassy employee also called foreign office chief Johnson an „idiot“ and mocked „crazy“ opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and his „weirdo“ supporters.

Similarity rank: 6.3

Sentiment rank: -3

© Source: http://www.timeslive.co.za/world/2017/01/08/Israel-apologises-over-threats-to-take-down-UK-minister1
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

A rebellion in Ivory Coast over soldiers‘ pay appears to have passed.
Residents and correspondents in the second city, Bouake, described calm on the streets – a day after troops briefly seized the defence minister.
The rebellion had spread from there to other cities, including the commercial hub, Abidjan, but that city, too, is now quiet.
A deal was struck between the mutinous soldiers and the government on Saturday, though details are scant.
A correspondent for AFP news agency in Bouake said on Sunday that there had been no firing there since Saturday evening.
„Traffic has resumed this morning and the shops have reopened. “
Ivory Coast profile
The mutiny began in Bouake early on Friday with soldiers firing rocket-launchers. On Saturday soldiers took over the army headquarters in Abidjan.
Protests also took place in the cities of Man, Daloa, Daoukro, Odienne and Korhogo.
President Alassane Ouattara went on national TV on Saturday night to announce a deal.
„I confirm that I have agreed to take into account the demands of the soldiers over bonuses and better working conditions,“ he said. At the same time he criticised the rebellion.
Aside from better pay, the agreement is reported to include an amnesty for the mutineers.
Defence Minister Alain-Richard Donwahi – who had gone to Bouake to negotiate with the protesters – was held for two hours there late on Saturday.
The mutiny raised fears of a resurgence of the violence seen during Ivory Coast’s 10-year civil war, which ended in 2011.
Some of the mutineers were thought to be former rebels who joined the army after the conflict.
The rebels swept into Abidjan from Bouake in 2011, helping Mr Ouattara take power after his predecessor Laurent Gbagbo – now on trial at the International Criminal Court – refused to accept defeat in elections the previous year.

Similarity rank: 5.6

Sentiment rank: 0.8

© Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-38547003
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

After the Haifa City Council made an unprecedented decision last week to ban the entry of polluting diesel vehicles from its center, the Environmental Protection Ministry called upon other cities to follow suit on Sunday.
Joining 200 European cities that have already done the same, Haifa City Council members voted last Tuesday night to approve a bylaw to delineate „an area of reduced polluting emissions from transportation“ – also known as a Clean Air Zone. Assuming the bylaw receives the authorization of the interior and transportation ministries, the legislation will empower Haifa officials to take action against polluting vehicles that venture into the city’s urban center.
Be the first to know – Join our Facebook page.
„The ministry calls upon other cities to improve air quality in their cities and the health of their residents, and to adopt a similar policy toward promoting a Clean Air Zone and prohibiting the entry of polluting vehicles that have not installed filters to reduce air pollution,“ a statement from the ministry said.
As a result of recent air pollution orders issued by the ministry, in the past few months, particulate filters have been installed in about 320 Egged and Dan buses, as well as in many municipal trucks, in Tel Aviv, a statement from the ministry said. In 2017, about 700 filters are expected to be installed in vehicles in Haifa, as part of a NIS 11.5-million ministry program targeting diesel buses and trucks whose entrance into the Clean Air Zone would be prohibited.
In recent years, the city of Haifa in particular has been waging war against the air pollution plaguing its population – a result of the significant amount of heavy industry operating in the bay region as well as mass transportation.
Environment Ministry calls upon cities to ban polluting vehicles from their centers
The enforcement of the Clean Air Zone is part of the larger National Plan to Reduce Air Pollution and Environmental Risks in the Haifa Bay Region, approved by the government in September 2015.
In the first stage, heavy diesel vehicles that weigh 3.5 tons or more will be restricted from entering the Clean Air Zone, according to the bylaw. In a second stage to follow, commercial diesel vehicles that weigh less than 3.5 tons will also be prohibited from the area. For operators of the polluting vehicles, filters will be offered at a subsidized price as a condition for entrance into the otherwise forbidden areas.
„The struggle for clean air in Haifa is a multi-stage struggle, whose essence is the fight against polluting factories and the aggressive reduction of emissions,“ said Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav. „Our war against pollution from transportation does not detract for a moment from the war we continue to conduct against polluting industry. “
Relevant to your professional network? Please share on Linkedin
Think others should know about this? Please share
| |

Similarity rank: 4.3

Sentiment rank: -0.6

© Source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Environment-Ministry-calls-on-Israel-cities-to-ban-polluting-vehicles-477803
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.