Alexandra is incensed at Bill Maher for making light of forced conversion to Islam. Maher isn’t one of my favorites (surprise, surprise, you say), and I don’t really tend to follow his shows. But in a comedy routine (video here; … Continue reading →
Airing this September 10-11, the five-year anniversary of 9/11, this ABC miniseries sounds awfully good. [ADDENDUM: A caveat about the historical accuracy of a certain scene involving the Clinton administration. Perhaps there’s a bit of Oliver Stonism creeping in?]
Continue reading →I’m the guest interviewee on this podcast from Shire Network News, found at Blogmatrix. You can download through iTunes, or just download it directly from the Blogmatrix site, here. The interview with me starts about a third of the way … Continue reading →
Iran and Ahmadinejad have once again demonstrated the great and awesome power of the UN and their fear of its sanctions, in Iran’s continued defiance of the UN’s call for limitations on its nuclear program. Although Kofi Annan made a … Continue reading →
If you’re having a slow Labor Day, take a look at this (hat tip: Pajamas Media): a young man named Noah takes a photo of himself every day for six years (yes, count ’em–or rather, maybe you’d better just take … Continue reading →
When I moved to my present house I inherited a perennial garden. That wasn’t my main concern. Just having a marginally affordable place to live was the important thing, because I managed to buy my house in a seller’s market … Continue reading →
It’s the second anniversary of one of the worst terrorist acts in history, the Beslan kidnapping and massacre. I wrote this post one year ago, on the first anniversary. Nothing much has changed since then. The sorrow of the parents … Continue reading →
[Parts I and II.] For anyone who was alive at the time and old enough to pay attention to the news, the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of Jimmy Carter and the Iranian Revolution is the hostage … Continue reading →
I don’t know about you, but this headline seems both absurd and tragic to me: Britain says it hopes for negotiated deal over Iran’s uranium enrichment The statement was actually by British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, but I doubt she … Continue reading →
[Part I of this series can be found here. Part III is here.] Shapour Bakhtiar took office as Prime Minister of Iran on Jan 6, 1979. He was appointed by the Shah in one of the latter’s final acts in … Continue reading →
The latest Sanity Squad podcast is now playing at Politics Central at Pajamas Media. We discuss the kidnapping and release of the Fox News correspondent and cameraman–both the psychological effects of such kidnappings and the phenomenon of forced conversion. My … Continue reading →
One of my favorite verses from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (the Fitzgerald translation of the Persian original) is this: The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to … Continue reading →