Does Ronen Bergman speculate about who will respond first to a "slight intelligence gaffe?" Washington is named first, then Israel. Is the ongoing
determination to portray Iran as a war mad nation just an attempt to secure likelihood of a larger than ever US military presence in the middle east ? The anti-war sentiment of awakening US voters as the election approaches may be a big surprise for anyone who thinks that 4.5k young US lives and countless billions of dollars, not to mention our reputation in the world, is just a drop in the bucket of what we can afford. cheers, rmdw
Your translations are much more lively than Edward Fitzgerald's, which I started reading (and memorized without trying) the year I was 17, 1948. My Aunt Abigail had given me a copy of Random House's beautifully illustrated (by an Iranian artist named Mahmoud Sayah), 1947 edition. After reading your renditions for some weeks, I went searching my bookshelves for that book and finally found it hidden in the linen covered sleeve that has kept it in very good condition all these years. I hope I will see your book soon.....rmdw
I find your criticism of Prof. Cole's choice of subject dictatorial, 'to say the least'. Perhaps the best remedy for your complaint is to start your own blog.
Many of us, having discovered Informed Comment some years ago, are still very pleased with, and better educated for it. cheers, rmdw
Can someone out there please let us know, at your convenience, the last date of an invasion by an armed military force, deployed by IRAN, across the border of a sovereign nation? Please do not include any other sort of incursion, such as the assignment of undercover agents, snoops, etc. Every country does that stuff. thanks, rmdw
Hey! JTMcPhee, Imagine my reply to all the questions in your last paragraph, sung (yes sung) at the top register of a powerful soprano voice.... We KNOW you are kidding and we HOPE you are running for President. rmdw
Well then, Michelle will have to open an embassy there. She would be the first president in history to open and close an embassy in the same nation simultaneously cheers, rmdw
Prof. Cole, The drums of war against Iran were being beaten unrelentingly this a.m.,on MSNBC with a guest Iranian whose name I think I have seen in your articles, named Mar???jani. The four or so program regulars and a guest, Richard Haas (?) flung every imaginable insult at the elderly, bearded, possibly devout Muslim person and actually sneered at him when he denied some accusation that clearly applied more to what Washington has been doing around the globe than Iran's activity. Finally when they had mopped the floor with him one of them asked him why "Iran is so paranoid about the USA" and they all chimed in to press him for an answer, he just barely managed to ask the same question of them regarding the US. It was unnerving to watch. cheers, rmdw
Is it time for the USA to start thinking about a completely new style of governance? What about having lots of decisions made by carefully programmed computers? Isn't one of the major chores of our elected congress to spend, allocate our tax money? Isn't all that money and what is done with it at the very heart of the corruption, waste and depravity that characterizes Washington now?
How much more despairing and hopeless do we have to become before some really good minds get together and start thinking of non-violent remedies? cheers, rmdw
Bookstores will be a loss to many people...how about a combination of fresh coffee, and old (real books) brought to the bookstore for exchange among visitors. I hate to abandon my old books..but have to sometimes. People who love books should meet somewhere to share the appreciation they all have for this latest fading treasure of old times. cheers, rmdw
How much power or influence can Pres. Obama or anyone who follows him into office have, in the face of this nightmarish scenario? Americans will probably put up with a lot more anti-democratic abuse before they go Egyptian, but hopefully, it'll be sooner than 'twenty centuries of stony sleep', when they wise up. cheers, rmdw
Professor Cole, Thank you for this article about Olberman. Most of the people I know are in a state of anxiety as a result of the election. It looks to many of us that the liberal instinct has been trashed thoroughly and the book I've been reading by Matthias Chang, "Programmed for War" which was written in 2005 is unfolding as fact even as I read it.
I have asked people who correspond through The Nation magazine's Discussion Group, to start thinking of ways the voters of this country can find to counter the grotesque distortion of our electoral system. I think a form of Referendum Voting combined with clear truth telling education might be the only chance we have to recover the kind of democracy we started losing when we joined World War One. rmdw
The comments by fd Ashford are greatly appreciated. As a long time reader of Prof. Cole's Informed Comment, I have come to understand that on many (too many) days, his is the only voice of reason to be found on current issues. fd Ashford, "I wish I woulda said dat." Sorry I cannot remember the originator of that quote. cheers, ruth macd wilson
The above remarks represent Americans talking to Washington....Washington sees nothing wrong with killing innocent people if it is a strategy in the latest foreign policy proposal from the favorite think tank of the season.
Does Ronen Bergman speculate about who will respond first to a "slight intelligence gaffe?" Washington is named first, then Israel. Is the ongoing
determination to portray Iran as a war mad nation just an attempt to secure likelihood of a larger than ever US military presence in the middle east ? The anti-war sentiment of awakening US voters as the election approaches may be a big surprise for anyone who thinks that 4.5k young US lives and countless billions of dollars, not to mention our reputation in the world, is just a drop in the bucket of what we can afford. cheers, rmdw
Your translations are much more lively than Edward Fitzgerald's, which I started reading (and memorized without trying) the year I was 17, 1948. My Aunt Abigail had given me a copy of Random House's beautifully illustrated (by an Iranian artist named Mahmoud Sayah), 1947 edition. After reading your renditions for some weeks, I went searching my bookshelves for that book and finally found it hidden in the linen covered sleeve that has kept it in very good condition all these years. I hope I will see your book soon.....rmdw
I find your criticism of Prof. Cole's choice of subject dictatorial, 'to say the least'. Perhaps the best remedy for your complaint is to start your own blog.
Many of us, having discovered Informed Comment some years ago, are still very pleased with, and better educated for it. cheers, rmdw
Can someone out there please let us know, at your convenience, the last date of an invasion by an armed military force, deployed by IRAN, across the border of a sovereign nation? Please do not include any other sort of incursion, such as the assignment of undercover agents, snoops, etc. Every country does that stuff. thanks, rmdw
Hey! JTMcPhee, Imagine my reply to all the questions in your last paragraph, sung (yes sung) at the top register of a powerful soprano voice.... We KNOW you are kidding and we HOPE you are running for President. rmdw
Well then, Michelle will have to open an embassy there. She would be the first president in history to open and close an embassy in the same nation simultaneously cheers, rmdw
Prof. Cole, The drums of war against Iran were being beaten unrelentingly this a.m.,on MSNBC with a guest Iranian whose name I think I have seen in your articles, named Mar???jani. The four or so program regulars and a guest, Richard Haas (?) flung every imaginable insult at the elderly, bearded, possibly devout Muslim person and actually sneered at him when he denied some accusation that clearly applied more to what Washington has been doing around the globe than Iran's activity. Finally when they had mopped the floor with him one of them asked him why "Iran is so paranoid about the USA" and they all chimed in to press him for an answer, he just barely managed to ask the same question of them regarding the US. It was unnerving to watch. cheers, rmdw
Is it time for the USA to start thinking about a completely new style of governance? What about having lots of decisions made by carefully programmed computers? Isn't one of the major chores of our elected congress to spend, allocate our tax money? Isn't all that money and what is done with it at the very heart of the corruption, waste and depravity that characterizes Washington now?
How much more despairing and hopeless do we have to become before some really good minds get together and start thinking of non-violent remedies? cheers, rmdw
Bookstores will be a loss to many people...how about a combination of fresh coffee, and old (real books) brought to the bookstore for exchange among visitors. I hate to abandon my old books..but have to sometimes. People who love books should meet somewhere to share the appreciation they all have for this latest fading treasure of old times. cheers, rmdw
How much power or influence can Pres. Obama or anyone who follows him into office have, in the face of this nightmarish scenario? Americans will probably put up with a lot more anti-democratic abuse before they go Egyptian, but hopefully, it'll be sooner than 'twenty centuries of stony sleep', when they wise up. cheers, rmdw
I just think maybe our democracy has been cornered in Washington and we should wave bye-bye to it. rmdw
Professor Cole, Thank you for this article about Olberman. Most of the people I know are in a state of anxiety as a result of the election. It looks to many of us that the liberal instinct has been trashed thoroughly and the book I've been reading by Matthias Chang, "Programmed for War" which was written in 2005 is unfolding as fact even as I read it.
I have asked people who correspond through The Nation magazine's Discussion Group, to start thinking of ways the voters of this country can find to counter the grotesque distortion of our electoral system. I think a form of Referendum Voting combined with clear truth telling education might be the only chance we have to recover the kind of democracy we started losing when we joined World War One. rmdw
The comments by fd Ashford are greatly appreciated. As a long time reader of Prof. Cole's Informed Comment, I have come to understand that on many (too many) days, his is the only voice of reason to be found on current issues. fd Ashford, "I wish I woulda said dat." Sorry I cannot remember the originator of that quote. cheers, ruth macd wilson
The above remarks represent Americans talking to Washington....Washington sees nothing wrong with killing innocent people if it is a strategy in the latest foreign policy proposal from the favorite think tank of the season.