Caption: A Mosul Bride: The girl in the centre of the picture is a Christian bride decked out in her wedding costume. The gold coins, necklaces, and girdle are her dowry. From M. E. Hume-Griffith and A. Hume, Behind the Veil in Persia and Turkish Arabia: An Account of an Englishwoman’s Eight Years’ Residence Amongst […]
The End of the Turkish Model? Erdogan’s Paranoia and Authoritarian Streak Threaten his Legacy
(By Juan Cole) Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is sounding more and more hysterical, and less and less like a statesman as 2013 ends. If you thought Barack Obama had a tough twelve months, you should consider Erdogan. A major corruption scandal has broken out in his government, with 24 persons implicated including the sons […]
Top Five Differences between Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson and Miley Cyrus
(By Juan Cole) Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal last week defended Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson and slammed pop diva Miley Cyrus. He said, “The politically correct crowd is tolerant of all viewpoints, except those they disagree with. I don’t agree with quite a bit of stuff I read in magazine interviews or see on TV. […]
FDL Book Salon on Andrew Bacevich, Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country
Hosting Book Salon at Firedoglake: FDL Book Salon Welcomes Andrew J. Bacevich, Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country Author: Juan Cole Sunday, December 22, 2013 12:15 pm Pacific time Welcome Andrew J. Bacevich (Boston University) (DemocracyNow!) and Host Juan Cole (JuanCole.com / Informed Comment) (Twitter) Breach of Trust: How Americans […]
Egypt Military Junta Sentences 2011 Revolutionaries to 3 Years Hard Labor
Egypt court jails anti-Mubarak activists for 3 years (via AFP) An Egyptian court on Sunday sentenced three activists who spearheaded the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak to three years in jail for organising an unlicensed protest, judicial sources said. It was the first such verdict against non-Islamist protesters… Informed Comment discussed the military coup […]
Obama warns South Sudan against Coup as US Plane comes under Fire
Obama warns S. Sudan against military coup (via AFP) President Barack Obama warned South Sudan on Saturday that Washington and its allies would cut aid to the country over any attempted military coup, amid growing fears of civil war. And top US diplomat John Kerry called South Sudanese President Salva… South Sudan (pop. 9 […]
SNL: Not only is Santa Black, but one of his Reindeers is Gay
Kenan Thompson and Cecily Strong make fun of Fox News’ Megyn Kelly and her silly insistence that “Santa Clause is white.” (See also IC’s take on the controversy).
Iranian-Armenian Nurse taking an X-Ray in Isfahan, 1900 (Photo of the Day)
(By Juan Cole) This amazing photograph probably dates to 1900. Taken in at the Christian Mission Society hospital in Julfa, the Armenian neighborhood of Isfahan, it shows a nurse taking an x-ray of a patient. The use of x-ray technology was still relatively new even in the US and Europe, and that the medical missionaries […]
NSA bribed Encryption Companies to Install Back Doors: Was the Law Broken? Did Obama Know?
(By Juan Cole) Reuters gets the scoop: the National Security Agency gave internet security firm RSA some $10 million to use an NSA encryption formula in its BSafe software. RSA is now a subsidiary of the EMC corporation, and they have urged customers not to use BSafe since the revelations by Edward Snowden made clear […]
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