Juan Cole

Listening to Newt Gingrich, the great bloviator, go on this morning on the alleged Muslim threat, set me off. Gingrich did his dissertation on Belgian educational policy in the Congo, where he managed to miss the genocide perpetrated by the Europeans. Gingrich knows better, he is just hate-mongering. But since he brought it up, it […]

Four persons were wounded by GRAD rockets that fell in south-western Beirut, a Hizbullah stronghold, on Sunday. The strikes come a day after the head of Hizbullah pledged to continue fighting for the al-Assad regime in Syria. Most Sunni Muslims in Lebanon support the rebels against the Baath government, and so are annoyed with Hizbullah […]

After a subway official chastised a young couple in Ankara for kissing in public, internet activists organized a small flashmob at the Kurtuluş metro station in the Turkish capital, where lots of couples engaged in a public display of affection. They attracted the ire of a group of religious men, but were protected by the […]

As The Scientific American noted a couple of years ago: In a 2011 study published in Nature, “. . . researchers examined daily records of rainfall, snowfall and sleet from more than 6,000 weather stations between 1951 and 1999. They found a rise in cases of extreme precipitation, such as rainstorms that deliver 100 millimeters […]

Checkpoint – Every Day Life in Palestine Documentary ( Subtitles ) ” Published on Apr 27, 2013 A film showing the day to day reality of Palestinians subjected to demeaning humiliation at Israeli military checkpoints as they attempt to go about their daily lives in their own lands. No political speeches. No opinions. Just an […]

The Taliban launched a major attack in the capital of Kabul on Friday, injuring 7 people with a car bomb at the International office of Immigration, a UN-affiliated organization. In the firefight between the attackers and the Afghanistan military (which was aided by Norwegian troops), 7 persons were killed, including 5 4 Taliban and three […]

Bill Moyers interviews Tim DeChristopher, leader of Peaceful Uprising, who just got out of jail after serving a two-year sentence for peacefully disrupting an oil and gas auction on public land that the Obama administration declared invalid.

David Schanzer writes at Islamicommentary: David Schanzer In his speech at the National Defense University, President Obama made his most impassioned and compelling argument to date about the need to close the prison for wartime detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. But logic and presidential will are not enough to achieve this goal. It […]

Here is a photo gallery from my visit on May 9, 2013, to the Iraqi National Museum, courtesy the Ministry of Culture. Ancient Iraq or Mesopotamia was, of course, the cradle of civilization, and the treasures on display are breathtaking. Donald Rumsfeld allowed thousands of items to be looted from the museum in 2003. (US […]