Ken Ballen, author of Terrorists in Love: The Real Lives of Islamic Radicals, writes in a guest column for Informed Comment : The policy of targeted assassinations and drone strikes as the cornerstone of an evolving U.S. counterterrorism policy carries some short-term tactical benefits but little in the way of lasting strategic success. Rather, the […]
Tawakul Karman, Yemen mother of 3, among winners of Nobel Peace Prize
One of the three women awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year is Tawakul Karman, 32, a Yemeni activist and mother of 3. Aljazeera has an interview with her in English about how she carries on demanding democracy in Yemen in the face of threats to herself and her family. For videos of her leading […]
Pro-Perry Evangelical Leader says Romney not a Christian, Mormonism a Cult
The evangelical pastor Robert Jeffres, introduced Rick Perry at the Values Voters conference on Friday, He strongly implied in his introduction that evangelicals would have a choice between a non-Christian ‘good man’ and a ‘born-again Christian.’ In later comments he explicitly called Mitt Romney a “non-Christian” and termed Mormonism “a cult.” Perry tried to dissociate […]
Palin was Right About those Government Death Panels
Well, the death panel has nothing to do with universal health care. But apparently it does exist, sited in the National Security Council. I discussed the assassination of Anwar al-`Awlaqi last Saturday, just trying to reason through the moral, legal and constitutional issues as a layperson. When I got to the end of the posting, […]
Best of the Web on Widening Wall Street Protests
The Occupy Wall Street protests spread Thursday to Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Philadelphia, though these rallies were relatively small compared to the estimated 20,000 who came out in New York on Wednesday. Aljazeera English reports on the Thursday protests, in which some protesters tried to breach the steel barriers police have erected around Wall […]
Steve Jobs: Arab-American, Buddhist, Psychedelic Drug User, and Capitalist World-Changer
The culture wars kicked off by the 1960s are still with us. Indeed, much of the discourse of contemporary American conservatism can be boiled down to “damn liberal hippies ruined the country and they were wrong about x, y and z.” Fox Cable News and other conservative mouthpieces go to extraordinary lengths to badmouth the […]
China and Iran, Green Together
China says it is planning joint projects with Iran on solar and wind energy. This news is potentially very important. I once took a 24-hour bus trip through the Great Salt Desert (Dasht-i Kavir) from Tehran to Zahedan, and I guarantee you there is lots of space there for solar panels, and lots of sunlight […]
Amanda Knox and Troy Davis
The overturning of the conviction for murder of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito by an Italian court on Monday contrasts with the fate of Troy Davis. In both cases, a conviction was built on shoddy evidence. In both cases, during the appeal the weakness of the case became apparent. But in the US, the verdict […]
Iran Business Partners: Cheney & Reagan, not Just the Koch Brothers
Bloomberg’s revelations that a subsidiary company owned by the radical rightwing billionaire brothers, Charles and David Koch, sold millions of dollars in refinery equipment to Iran has produced widespread outrage on the blogosphere, given that Koch-backed politicians of the Tea Bagger persuasion have been among the more vociferous hawks calling for war on Iran. The […]
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