I staggered, drunk, outside a bar last night and saw a tipsy older man emerge, a bottle slung across his shoulder; and I said to him, “At your age, aren’t you ashamed before the Lord Almighty?” He laughed, “God is merciful: Here, have some wine!” Translated by Juan Cole from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 284
Lyon: CNN censored Ahmadinejad, engaged in War Propaganda
Amber Lyon, Emmy-award-winning journalist who has worked for CNN, alleges to RT that the network left out Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s calls for peace and an alternative world order when it covered his UN speech. She goes on to allege that CNN deep-sixed her documentary on Bahrain, possibly because CNN packages PR programming *for* the […]
Iran Bazaar Strikes signal Misery, not Sanctions ‘Victory’
On Wednesday, the Tehran covered bazaar was closed, and the traditional market in some other cities such as Mashhad also went on strike, with demonstrators protesting the collapse of the Iranian currency, the rial. Until last November, the rial was about 10,000 to the dollar. Then it fell to 12,000. Last summer it hit 16,000. […]
Omar Khayyam (2) “Who brought you here?”
Tonight, who brought you, drunk, here to me? From behind the curtain, who brought you here?– to someone who was on fire because of your absence– someone who, like the wind, sought you everywhere! Who brought you here? Translated by Juan Cole from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 2
Big Bird and the Romney Games (Cartoon)
Poll: Obama better Represents America!
We can pronounce the long GOP campaign to frame Barack Obama as somehow ‘foreign’ as complete failure. In a new Reuters/Ipsons Reuters/Ipsos poll of 1,600 likely voters, Americans saw Obama as ‘better representing America’ than Mitt Romney by double digits! I wonder, in fact, if the Culture Wars are not over. White European men are […]
Top Seven Errors President Obama has made on the Middle East
Yesterday I explored the errors and fantasies in Gov. Mitt Romney’s WSJ op-ed on the Middle East. Here I will briefly go over the mistakes that the Obama administration has made in the region. Unlike the proposed blunders of Romney, I have to say, most of these are errors of omission or of an abundance […]
Tom Ricks and The Generals: Why the US succeeded in WWII but not Since
Tom Ricks, award-winning military journalist, gives the Nimitz Lecture on why the US military succeeded in WW II but had so much trouble in the Korean, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The book version is out shortly, Tom Ricks, The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today See also Ricks’s invaluable blog
Omar Khayyam (283) “Last night I wandered into a dark pottery workshop”
Last night I wandered into a dark pottery workshop and saw about two thousand pots lined up in silence. But then suddenly a vase cried out, inquiring, ‘Where in the world are the potter and the customers and salespeople?” Translated by Juan Cole from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 283
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