Senate report on Saddam and al Qaeda: more turtles?
If Saddam says so, I guess it must be the truth.
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Next “change” post gone AWOL
No, I haven’t forgotten my “A mind is a difficult thing to change” series, even though it might seem that way. I haven’t posted a segment in quite a while, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen. What it does … Continue reading →
Fallaci goes a few rounds with Khomeini
In honor of Oriana Fallaci, the fearless and uniquely outspoken correspondent who died yesterday in Florence Italy, I’m posting excerpts from her 1979 interview with Ayatollah Khomeini, which occurred not long after he came to power (these quotes appeared as … Continue reading →
Fake but accurate: what if it’s turtles all the way down?
Here’s the joke: A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the Earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a … Continue reading →
Roya Hakakian and SAVAK: another changer
When I was writing about the 1979 Iranian revolution I asked the following question: The Shah’s secret police–SAVAK, usually referred to with an adjective such as “dreaded” or “hated” before the acronym–was active in Iran to stifle those who would … Continue reading →
RIP, Oriana
The utterly unique and seemingly fearless Oriana Fallaci has died. Charismatic, beautiful, outspoken, iconoclastic, articulate, fiery, controversial, in recent years Fallaci had been battling cancer, but she continued speaking out against Islam’s violent incursions into Europe. Fallaci never was one … Continue reading →
The Big Story, according to Google: the Gates of Regensburg
My home page is Google, which always contains a feature entitled “Top Stories,” listing what Google considers the five biggest stories of the hour. Usually it has a variety–I’ve never seen it with the same story five times before. But … Continue reading →
Update: the wheels of French justice grind fine…
…and maybe not so slowly, after all. Nidra Pollner’s second report, this one focusing on the trial, sounds very, very promising: It was a beautiful trial. It was held in an atmosphere of respect for justice… And here is part … Continue reading →
Dreyfus and the France2 case: history doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes
The great Mark Twain wrote, in one of his pithiest and most insightful aphorisms: History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme. Not all the rhymes of history are beautiful poetry, of that we can be sure. Case in point: … Continue reading →
The sky of 9/11
On this past Monday, the fifth anniversary of 9/11, I noticed the sky was clear and blue. But the blue was an ordinary blue, nothing like the intense clarity of the sky five years ago. It’s one of the things … Continue reading →
Uneasy lies the head next to the head that wears a crown
I sense a theme here–two headlines spotted today in the supermarket checkout line, composing the entire front page of the tabloid the Globe: Camilla Runs Back to Ex-Hubby Laura Bush’s Nervous Breakdown: “I can’t take any more,” she tells Prez … Continue reading →
The cycle of violence: revenge on the stingrays
When I first read this I thought it was from the Onion. But no, it turns out to be for real. It appears that some person or persons in Australia are seeking vengence for naturalist Steve Irwin’s death by killing … Continue reading →