May 2010
61 posts
3 tags
“Like artists everywhere, Iran’s filmmakers should be celebrated, not...”
– A group of film industry luminaries — including Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Joel and Ethan Coen, Jonathan Demme, Ang Lee, Oliver Stone, and Michael Moore — called on the Iranian government Friday to release jailed director Jafar Panahi.
“We …...
April 2010
56 posts
3 tags
“The president of the private company that owns the Ambassador Bridge is calling...”
–
Not long after Granholm revealed the offer from Canada to pay for Michigan’s portion of a new bridge between Detroit and Windsor, the privately-owned Detroit International Bridge Company revealed what is obviously a long-standing plot that saw Canada send Granholm to Michigan so that she...
3 tags
3 tags
2 tags
3 tags
Miami Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland apologizes to Dez... →
“My job is to find out as much information as possible about a player that I’m considering drafting. Sometimes that leads to asking in-depth questions,” Ireland said Tuesday in a statement released by the Dolphins. “Having said that, I talked to Dez Bryant and told him I used poor judgment in one of the questions I asked him. I certainly meant no disrespect and apologized...
3 tags
2 tags
We Have Met the Enemy and He is PowerPoint →
It would be disingenuous to say that the New York Times, in an article on the U.S. military, has captured the only reasons I don’t use PowerPoint. But they’re pretty close.
“PowerPoint makes us stupid,” Gen. James N. Mattis of the Marine Corps, the Joint Forces commander, said this month at a military conference in North Carolina. (He spoke without PowerPoint.) Brig. Gen. H. R....
3 tags
3 tags
Hamas security forces break up Gaza Strip's first... →
The B Boy Gaza group had just started a lively dance set late on Saturday in a crowded auditorium when police from the Islamist Hamas group that rules the Gaza Strip ended the performance with shouts of “the show is over”, witnesses said. “I told one of the policemen that rap meant respect for all people, but he didn’t seem to be listening. He said it was an immoral...
3 tags
2 tags
Juxtaposition in the Middle East
The following two articles appeared one after the other in the Haaretz newsfeed this morning. Both speak to the relationship between the Israeli government and Hamas, so I thought I’d offer their highlights together for a little juxtaposition between the workings of a government (however flawed it might be) and of a terrorist organization.
First:
Israel has allowed the daughter of...
5 tags
Obama Marks Genocide Without Saying the Word →
“On this solemn day of remembrance, we pause to recall that 95 years ago one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century began,” Mr. Obama said in the statement, which largely echoed the same language he used on this date a year ago. “In that dark moment of history, 1.5 million Armenians were massacred or marched to their death in the final days of the Ottoman Empire.”
When he was running for...
1 tag
2 tags
Human Rights Class Blog →
This semester, my students were given an online assignment: I set up a blog and they were instructed to write at least two short posts (200 words) that involved human rights issues in the news and at least one longer post (800 words) on a human rights topic of their choice.
I think it’s gone relatively well, insofar as there are something in the neighborhood of forty posts by the students...
5 tags
3 tags
Former Argentine President Gets 25 Years for... →
Reynaldo Bignone, a former military general, was found guilty of torture, murder and several kidnappings that occurred while he was commander of the notorious Campo de Mayo detention centre between 1976 and 1978. The 82-year-old, who was appointed de facto president of Argentina by the military junta in 1982, has been sentenced to 25 years in jail. Five other military officers were also given...
2 tags
3 tags
1 tag
The Price of Assassination →
Should we attempt to assassinate terrorist leaders?
Robert Wright says:
There’s no way of answering this question with complete confidence, but it turns out there are some relevant and little-known data. They were compiled by Jenna Jordan of the University of Chicago, who published her findings last year in the journal Security Studies. She studied 298 attempts, from 1945 through 2004, to...
3 tags
1 tag
1 tag
4 tags
“Calling capital punishment in California an ‘empty promise,’ the...”
–
The prosecutor also echoed the sentiments of King’s father on the death penalty in California, where 13 executions have been carried out since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.
“Most of us realize a death sentence at this time is a hollow promise in...
1 tag
1 tag
Weapons Galore in Yemen →
An interesting — and generally alarming — article details the proliferation of unlicensed arms in Yemen, a country devastated by conflicts on three fronts.
Indeed, weapons currently outnumber Yemen’s population by a factor of three to one.
“The Yemeni government is so weak and it could collapse at any time,” [said Khaled Al-Anasi, Executive Director of the Yemeni...
3 tags
“The prisoners’ deal is not the last and only hope for Hamas to release the...”
– With tensions between Israel and Hamas once again on the rise, the armed wing of Hamas is suggesting that a deal for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit isn’t the only way to move forward a possible prisoner exchange.
Of course, the political wing has suggested the same thing:
On Saturday Hamas...
2 tags
Best Christian Rock Band Ever?
Playing video games with The Wife this evening and listening to U2.
The hairstyles don’t hold up, but the music does. Especially if you ignore all the religious business in there, as we tend to do.
2 tags
“Obama has only one way to remain in power and be successful. This way is Iran.”
– Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has written a letter to Barack Obama in which he insists that cooperation with Iran is the way forward for the United States.
Obama, of course, has been pushing the Security Council to enact tougher sanctions on Iran due its nuclear program.
Ahmadinejad argues that it’s...
3 tags
“Every day, all across America, patients are denied the kindness and caring of a...”
– In a move that’s sure to anger people whose views I have a very difficult time understanding, President Obama has finally ordered new rules that are aimed at granting hospital visitation rights to same-sex partners.
Full article here.
2 tags
3 tags
Executions by Hamas in Gaza 'deplorable' →
In the first formal executions carried out by the de facto authority in Gaza, two Palestinian men were shot to death early this morning.
According to Amnesty International, “Both men had been convicted in 2009 by military courts in Gaza of charges of ‘collaboration’ with the Israeli military and involvement in murder.”
Full article here.
2 tags
1 tag
5 tags
Two Abortion Laws Signed in Nebraska →
The Nebraska legislature — which so very recently decided not to bother studying the cost of implementing its new death penalty statute because they don’t care how much it costs to kill citizens convicted of murder so long as the end result is that they are dead — also sent two bills on abortion to the desk of Gov. Dave Heineman. He signed them as quickly as he hopes to soon sign...
2 tags
3 tags
1 tag
5 tags
Remembering the Six Million
Today is Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Rememberance Day.
As we remember the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis, let us also recommit ourselves to fighting intolerance, injustice, and human rights abuses around the world.
1 tag
4 tags
4 tags
3 tags
On Not Taking Democracy for Granted
Over at The Monkey Cage, there’s an interesting post regarding the tragic plane crash that took the lives of so many high-ranking members of the Polish government.
Here it is:
One thing strikes me: this tragedy is also becoming a triumph of Polish democracy, in two ways. First, the political institutions worked: the army leadership has been immediately replaced, Komorowski is now President...
2 tags
Music for Grading
This weekend, with a sizable stack of essays on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict spread out in front of me, it’s definitely Broken Bells.
If you like James Mercer (of The Shins) and Brian Burton (better known as Danger Mouse) separately, as I do, then you’ll almost certainly like them together.
Enjoy!
[Photo Credit]
5 tags
Anti-Semitism in Europe Hit New High in 2009 →
Yesterday, I directed your attention to an article about Europe’s rising wave of anti-Islamic sentiment. But, ever committed to equal opportunity, Europe has also seen a marked rise in anti-Semitism of late. Indeed, the number of anti-Semitic incidents doubled from 2008 to 2009. Articles in both Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post note that the rise is attributed to Operation Cast Lead in Gaza....
3 tags
Is an Anti-Islam Wave Hitting Europe? →
According to an interesting piece over at FiveThirtyEight, the answer is clearly “Yes”:
[T]here is sufficient evidence to say that as Muslim populations have grown in European countries, anti-Muslim sentiment and rhetoric have increased among the right and far-right. In addition, we are likely to see them increase, especially as more Muslims settle in Europe. The length and strength of...
3 tags
2 tags
3 tags
1 tag
“A 2007 survey by BabyCenter found that 3 percent of parents feel such regret and...”
– Naming a child seems like an impossibly big deal to me. And, of course, it’s the most commonly asked question that we get from people these days.
Our go-to answer is that we’re waiting until we actually see the kid before we decide. People generally seem to think this is an acceptable...