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Archives for February 2014

leisure
Sochi Opening Ceremony Fireworks

Sochi Opening Ceremony Fireworks

Juan Cole

AFP footage of “Dazzling fireworks conclude Sochi opening ceremony”

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari
Bhutto Zardari:  Taliban must be eradicated from Pakistan

Bhutto Zardari: Taliban must be eradicated from Pakistan

Juan Cole

(Via The Economist): Bilawal Bhutto on Pakistani politics: Renaissance man (via The Economist) MODELS in skimpy outfits, dancing around a fiery cauldron in a strange homage to an ancient, pre-Islamic past…is not most people’s idea of how to launch a political career in Pakistan. But Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the 25-year-old heir to one of the… […]

Climate Change
McKibben:  Crunch Time for Obama on Keystone XL

McKibben: Crunch Time for Obama on Keystone XL

Juan Cole

Bill Moyers interviews environmental activist Bill McKibben on the choice facing President Obama on the Keystone XL pipeline: McKibben argues that stopping the pipeline is a necessary first step to stopping the dirty tar sands industry and saving the climate. McKibben’s web site is 350.org

Featured
Another non-terrorist non-Muslim Plane Hijacker: The Sochi Plot

Another non-terrorist non-Muslim Plane Hijacker: The Sochi Plot

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) The Associated Press article on the Ukrainian hijacker who tried to divert a plane to Sochi on Friday is interesting for the words it does not use. (I’m not picking on AP– all the other articles on this subject are like this one in this regard.) This Ukrainian man had political discontents […]

Dissent
NSA's Zero Day Exploits: Paying $800 mn. to Hackers so they Can Spy on You

NSA’s Zero Day Exploits: Paying $800 mn. to Hackers so they Can Spy on You

contributors

(By Pratap Chatterjee via Tomdispatch) Imagine that you could wander unseen through a city, sneaking into houses and offices of your choosing at any time, day or night.  Imagine that, once inside, you could observe everything happening, unnoticed by others — from the combinations used to secure bank safes to the clandestine rendezvous of lovers. […]

al-Qaeda
Daily Show: How much of an A*hole do you have to be that Al-Zawahiri won’t Work with You?

Daily Show: How much of an A*hole do you have to be that Al-Zawahiri won’t Work with You?

Juan Cole

Jon Stewart of the Daily Show at Comedy Central covers the fruitless Syria negotiations and break between al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Imagine my surprise when a a clip from an interview I did at Aljazeera America on the issue was included in this piece! Thanks, Daily Show! The Daily […]

Dissent
Boycott of Israeli Universities by American Studies Assn. being Tried in a Kangaroo Court

Boycott of Israeli Universities by American Studies Assn. being Tried in a Kangaroo Court

contributors

(By Alan M. Wald) In Memory of Edward Said (1935-2003) “You cannot continue to victimize someone else just because you yourself were a victim once—there has to be a limit.” –Edward W. Said, “The Myth of ‘The Clash of Civilizations,’” 1998 “A man once jumped from the top floor of a burning house in which […]

censorship
Turkey's Ruling Party enacts "Orwellian" Web Censorship

Turkey’s Ruling Party enacts “Orwellian” Web Censorship

Juan Cole

(Via AFP) Turkey lawmakers adopt ‘Orwellian’ Internet curbs (via AFP) Turkish MPs late Wednesday adopted new Internet legislation roundly criticised as a fresh assault by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on freedom of expression, access to information and investigative journalism. The proposals come amid parallel moves…   ——— Related Video: Euronews reports, “Turkey approves new […]

Human Rights
"In the Seam": Israel Strangles Palestinian Town

“In the Seam”: Israel Strangles Palestinian Town

Juan Cole

(By Sarah Leah Whitson, Human Rights Watch) (Jerusalem) – The Israeli military is severely harming livelihoods in a Palestinian village in the West Bank that it plans to turn into an archaeological tourist site. The military should drop the project and lift excessive restrictions that keep residents from building or farming on their land and […]

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