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Archives for April 2012

Uncategorized
Dear CNN:  This is not News;  *This* is News

Dear CNN: This is not News; *This* is News

Juan Cole

Dear CNN: You are in danger of being sued for false advertising, since you characterize yourself as a news channel. Just so you know, this is your home page as I write and it is mostly not actually news: If you’d like some help with recognizing actual news, you might check this site:

Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s Taliban – a differing view of drones (Woods)

Juan Cole

Chris Woods writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: Scholars Alex Strick van Linschoten, 28, and 32 year old Felix Kuehn have swapped the musty libraries of London for the dusty streets of Kandahar, spiritual home of the Taliban. There the two have lived for almost five years, engaging with those many call the enemy […]

Uncategorized
Egyptian Court throws out Fundamentalist Constitution-writing assembly, Insists on a Representative Body

Egyptian Court throws out Fundamentalist Constitution-writing assembly, Insists on a Representative Body

Juan Cole

Egypt’s administrative court invalidated the current constituent assembly charged with drafting the new constitution, on the grounds that it is overly stacked with Muslim fundamentalists and is unrepresentative of Egyptian society. The court relied on a 1994 law stipulating that sitting judges and parliamentarians may not be involved in constitutional revisions, lest they misuse their […]

Uncategorized
Text from Hillary to Santorum:  The Front Line of Combat is Not the Best Place for You

Text from Hillary to Santorum: The Front Line of Combat is Not the Best Place for You

Juan Cole

h/t to Texts from Hillary and Kevin Lamarque Rick Santorum on women serving in combat: “I think that could be a very compromising situation where people naturally may do things that may not be in the interest of the mission because of other types of emotions that are involved. I was talking about men’s emotional […]

art and photography
Amman, Jordan (0111)

Amman, Jordan (0111)

Juan Cole

Photograph of Amman, Jordan, August, 2008, by Juan Cole

Afghanistan
The Afghanistan Syndrome (Engelhardt)

The Afghanistan Syndrome (Engelhardt)

Juan Cole

Tom Engelhardt writes at Tomdispatch: The Afghan Syndrome Vietnam Has Left Town, Say Hello to the New Syndrome on the Block By Tom Engelhardt Take off your hat. Taps is playing. Almost four decades late, the Vietnam War and its post-war spawn, the Vietnam Syndrome, are finally heading for their American grave. It may qualify […]

Omar Khayyam
Omar Khayyam (94)

Omar Khayyam (94)

Juan Cole

I have no idea if  the one who created me placed me among  the good in paradise or the hideous in hell. A cup, a sweetheart, and a lute are cash enough for me and credit toward heaven  for you. Translated by Juan Cole from [pdf] Whinfield 94

Syria
Syrian Civil War Kills 160, Spills over onto Lebanon, Turkey; Will US Intervene?

Syrian Civil War Kills 160, Spills over onto Lebanon, Turkey; Will US Intervene?

Juan Cole

Fighting on Monday in Homs and other Syrian cities left some 160 dead on Monday, and, ominously, Syrian troops fired into Lebanon and Turkey, killing 3 persons. The Syrian crisis has escalated into a civil war, and now it is threatening to involve Syria’s neighbors. The Syrian military attacked the town of Rastan near Homs […]

Uncategorized
"Smile" - Tamer Hosny and Shaggy's Feel-Good Arabic Music Video

“Smile” – Tamer Hosny and Shaggy’s Feel-Good Arabic Music Video

Juan Cole

Egyptian singing star (“the King of Pop”) Tamer Hosny, a late convert to the Egyptian revolution, and Shaggy released this music video, entitled “Smile” a couple of months ago and it is still in ART’s Top Ten. Since the amount of Smiling, kindness and generosity that goes on every day in the Arab world is […]

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