Ahmadi killings – we are all guilty
On Friday, May 28, 2010, gunmen wearing suicide jackets and carrying grenades opened fire on two separate Ahmadi congregations in the city of Lahore as they were gathered for Friday prayer. Men got...
Category: Current Affairs
Oil spills and economic crises: once more, with feeling
A clip on Rachel Maddow's show Thursday showed that the oil leak still pouring into the Gulf of Mexico bears an uncanny resemblance to one from 1979. Each one of the failed containment plans (top...
Tony Abbott and the Liberals: Truthiness Down Under
The American satiric comedian Stephen Colbert famously introduced the word “truthiness” into the contemporary English lexicon. Dictionary Merriam Webster named it their Word of Year in 2006,...
A different sort of female genital mutilation
About thirty years ago, there was an informal secret society in the city of Cork. Perhaps a loose net of those with a shared interest might be more accurate. This group passed the names of certain...
Iran and the Bomb: simulating nuclear negotiation
If (when?) Iran gets the bomb, the following things will happen: Israel’s ability to deter or react to Hezbollah gets tighter; The U.S. will have to balance Israel’s desire for action with China...
Faisal Shahzad: actually, Pakistan is a great ally on the war on terror
So another guy with a Muslim name, this time a Pakistani name, recently attempted to attack an American target. I've been watching the Daily Show about it, along with the other news channels of equal...
Mother’s Day: What are we really celebrating?
Today is Mother’s Day and restaurants and florist shops are on overdrive, trying to keep up with the consumer-driven holiday we have created to celebrate motherhood. In advertising, I have seen...
Victoria Clark talks Yemen and the West
Born in Yemen, Victoria Clark was an Observer journalist in post-Communist Romania and in ex-Yugoslavia during Croat and Bosnian wars. From 1990-1996, Clark was stationed in Moscow. Her latest book...
Election Night in the UK: What does ‘change’ mean?
Within forty-eight hours we might have a picture of what the next five years will look like in the UK. Might. It could well be that we don’t even know how the UK electoral map has finally turned...
Michelle Obama & Princeton: do the hard work yourself
Michelle Obama is everywhere these days, but one place you won’t find her is the Class of 1985 - 25th Reunion celebration at Princeton University. Obama, who graduated cum laude from Princeton in...