Terrorism’s Purpose

“The purpose of political terrorism for a century and a half has been to provoke repressive countermeasures, so that more and more of “your” people will feel forced to choose you over your enemy.” (Unqualified Offerings)

The Head Heeb

The Head Heeb is the blog of Jonathan Edelstein who is a lawyer in New York. He started blogging only a couple of weeks ago, but already has quite a few interesting posts. For a start, I recommend his posts on the Middle East/Israel/Palestine (1, 2, 3). He calls himself a “militant moderate” on the… Continue reading The Head Heeb

Wahabism and Reformation again

Bill Allison does not agree with Ikram Saeed that Wahabism is the Reformation for Islam. Superficially, the comparison seems apt. Like Luther and Calvin and Tyndale, al-Wahhab demanded fidelity to the text, to a return to the revelation as it was understood by the first practicioners of the religion, for a rejection of innovations that… Continue reading Wahabism and Reformation again

Is Racism Alive?

It sure seems like it from this study: To test whether employers discriminate against black job applicants, Marianne Bertrand of the University of Chicago and Sendhil Mullainathan of M.I.T. conducted an unusual experiment. They selected 1,300 help-wanted ads from newspapers in Boston and Chicago and submitted multiple résumés from phantom job seekers. The researchers randomly… Continue reading Is Racism Alive?

Bush on Lott

Finally, a condemnation from President Bush: We must also rise to a second challenge facing our country. This great and prosperous land must become a single nation of justice and opportunity. We must continue our advance toward full equality for every citizen, which demands the guarantee of civil rights for all. Any suggestion that the… Continue reading Bush on Lott

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Categorized as Politics

Finally, A Link Between Iraq and Terrorism

Gene Healy wonders whether we have already won against Al-Qaeda: Consider Malvo and Muhammed. Two none-too-bright jokers with a $300 rifle and no formal training repeatedly shut down the Beltway and terrorized Greater Washington for almost a month. If America really is riddled with sleeper cells, why not activate another 20 guys? Ten two-man-shooter teams,… Continue reading Finally, A Link Between Iraq and Terrorism

Joke of a Prime Minister

This is a funny Prime Minister we have got in Pakistan: Concurring with the suggestion that the floor-crossing law [this law disallows parliamentarians to change parties] was a good law, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, however, maintained that at times you have to ‘close your eyes’ to such things to help the new and… Continue reading Joke of a Prime Minister

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Categorized as Pakistan

The Dirty World of Weapons Export

Hans Blix doesn’t want to make the names of weapons suppliers public, according to the NY Times: Mr. Blix, the chairman of the United Nations chemical and biological weapons team, explained that he would, at least initially, remove the suppliers’ names from the document that will be made public because inspectors found in the past… Continue reading The Dirty World of Weapons Export

Grading is a Pain

Blogging will be light for 2 days as I try to grade student projects. Scratch that. I’ll probably blog when I am tired of grading, though it will be brief items.

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Categorized as Life

Which Hogwarts Student Are You?

Which Hogwarts Student Are You? Found via No Point of Reference