The US's dangerous and ill-conceived Missile Defense Plan will make the world even less secure and divert resources from valuable social programs.  Let's tell our new PM PM we want no part of it! 

An online petition is urging Second Cup (the largest retailer of gourmet coffee in Canada) to sell Fair Trade coffee.  

A coalition of peace organizations is organizing an International Inquiry into 9-11, beginning in San Francisco in March.  

Phase 2 will be in May in Toronto. 

The Institute for Peace and Justice provides suggestions for actions to say no to Empire and yes to global solidarity. 

See a running tally of the cost of the war in Iraq

and the body count (including civilians. 

Find out who the major beneficiaries of the war are. 

Then look at 18 strategies for confronting the "major systemic problmes confronting humanity."

2003 was a year of lots of bad news, but there was some good news.  Katha Pollitt  and Medea Benjamin  found the nuggets. 

Conservatives in the US are rumbling about a national law defining gender conditions for marriage.  William O. Beeman explains why it can't work. 

The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq should be a best-seller! 

Deception Dollar is a site dedicated to exposing the truth about 9-11 and the "war on terrorism - the "dollars" are covered with URLs of sites providing information not likely to be found in the mainstream media. 

Some good sites I hadn't seen before include cooperativeresearch and activeopposition

Find out all about the Bush family values.

The Muslim Peace Fellowship and the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America collaborated to produce a Peace Primer " to allow Christians and Muslims ... to hear what each has to say about seeking justice, pursuing peace and working for reconciliation."

Another resource for young people is PeaceJam: How Young People Can Make Peace in Their Schools and Communities.

And from The Shalom Center, a curriculum for peacemaking. 

In a year of lots of bad news, there was some good news.  Katha Pollitt  and Medea Benjamin  found the nuggets in 2003. 

Grist magazine suggests that environmental activists take a lesson from the anti-smoking movement.

And Ellen Goodman comes to similar conclusions. 

A little humour from angrycandy.org - the Lying Dubya action figure.