Juan Cole

Ahrar Ahmad reviews M. Shahid Alam. Israeli Exceptionalism: The Destabilizing Logic of Zionism (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), 274 pp., for IC Ahrar Ahmad writes: Shahid Alam is primarily an economist and an educator. But, he is also a public intellectual, and often a lively polemicist, who writes with insight and conviction on issues dealing […]

Drudge Retort says, “Political cartoonist Mark Fiore wrote on his blog that he’s receiving death threats over a 90-second animated film he created that teaches viewers “how to speak Tea Bag.” Comparing his predicament to that of Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, Fiore writes, “Muslim extremist, meet Tea Party extremist.” See Mark Fiore’s blog. This is […]

The corporate media are in the tank for a Republican comeback in 2010, and the GOP may in fact pick up some seats in the Senate and the House, though if employment ticks up by the fall, not as many as some are implying. The corporate media made a big deal about two Democrats who […]

The riots by some Muslims in Malaysia and attacks on Christian churches over a recent court ruling allowing Christians to call God “Allah” are as baffling and dismaying to me as to everyone else. I mean, there is a post-colonial dimension to these things. Malaysia was conquered by the British in the 19th century and […]

International Living has issued its annual ranking of countries as the best places to live. I do not know anything about the site, International Living, which seems to be oriented to selling real estate abroad to American retirees. At least some subscribers have raised questions about whether it is genuinely an informational site as opposed […]

Jumping from the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Via MSNBC Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy End/ (Not Continued) Cont’d (click below or on “comments”)

EXPLAINING THE CONCEPT OF “LEARNING CURVE” TO JEFFREY GOLDBERG � The Race for Iran Hillary Mann Leverett explains to American Likudnik Jeffrey Goldberg that an Iran realist is a Neocon who has been mugged by reality. End/ (Not Continued)

I just saw a clip on Aljazeera Arabic of the “martyrdom tape” of Humam al-Balawi, the Jordanian-Palestinian double agent who carried out a suicide bombing in Khost, Afghanistan, last week, killing 7 Americans working for the Central Intelligence Agency along with his handler, a Jordanian intelligence operative. He said his action was a message to […]

I give the text of President Obama’s speech on security below, along with video. Unlike the two speeches Obama gave in the immediate aftermath of the attempted underpants bombing, in this one the president was focused and decisive. As amazing as it seems, it appears that the Obama team had just never sat down and […]