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Dr. Farhang Jahanpour writes in a guest column for Informed Comment : The war of words between Iran and the West has reached dangerous proportions, and it may easily get out of hand. It is clear that the majority of people in the West and in Iran do not wish the hostilities to develop into […]

My resolution for 2012 is to be naïve — dangerously naïve…

courtesy Ben Adler @ Reuters

Why did Mitt Romney win Iowa? Not because he is the ideal candidate, but because the Republican faithful will just have to settle. That the turnout was not impressive, despite grassroots exasperation with Barack Obama, is a testament to the lack of enthusiasm with which the Iowa GOP greeted the quirky field of candidates presented […]

My essay, “Reading in the New Millennium: Forward to the Past?” is out at Truthdig. Excerpt: “I have been rereading Ralph Waldo Emerson’s two-volume “Essays” on my iPad via Google Books. His remarks at the opening of the piece on “Politics” are justly renowned but always worth considering again: “In dealing with the State, we […]

It was to be the war that would establish empire as an American fact.  It would result in a thousand-year Pax Americana.  It was to be “mission accomplished” all the way.  And then, of course, it wasn’t.  And t…

A sharp drop in the value of the Iranian currency as a result of new American sanctions may sound like good news to hawks in the US. But actually this development may signal ways in which Americans will also be harmed, and Obama may have put a second term in jeopardy, cutting off his nose […]

What Iowa looks like with regard to ethnicity (2010 Census): What the United States looks like (2010 Census)