 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
When a leading Turkish novelist said earlier this year that 1 million Armenians were murdered in his country during World War I, he broke a deep taboo.
Three lawsuits were filed against Orhan Pamuk, accusing him of damaging the state. “He shouldn’t be allowed to breathe,” roared one nationalist group. In Istanbul, a school collected his […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics
The occupation is worse than an economic tsunami: it managed to plunge Iraq - once a beacon of development in the Arab world - into Sub-Saharan poverty. There’s less electricity each day than in 2003 or even 2004. Without electricity, the whole country is paralyzed: nothing - communications, industry, the healthcare system, the educational system […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics
“The church decided to close itself off more, and to focus on its European roots” in choosing Cardinal Ratzinger, said Hussein al-Shobokshy, a Saudi columnist for the Pan-Arab daily Al Sharq al Awsat. “The neocons should be happy with this election. He is someone they can do business with.” ~International Herald-Tribune
One Saudi columnist does not […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics
How much weight John Paul II’s successor will give to unity with the Orthodox remains to be seen. If the new Pope comes from Africa or Latin America he may put little or no weight on this question. Indeed the Orthodox may find that John Paul II was their best opportunity for unity; when they […]
4 Comments »
Filed under: religion
With much of the church having succumbed to the heresy of modernism, it needs an Athanasius. ~Pat Buchanan, April 8
With the selection of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, the hopes of traditionalist Catholics the world over, expressed by Mr. Buchanan’s article over a week ago, were realised as fully as they could have […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics
Already, the neoconservative Wall Street Journal has put its nail file between his shoulder blades and urged the GOP to abandon him. While the GOP caucus seems to be holding firm, DeLay has few vocal defenders.
Of what does he stand accused? He put his wife and daughter on his campaign staff, for pay. But, […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics
Alyaa said she was the first woman in her neighborhood to sign up to work with the U.S. government after Saddam Hussein fell.
She used to stand shoulder to shoulder with an American soldier in front of the U.S. military’s Camp Scania in the Rashid section of Baghdad. As a translator, Alyaa, 24, talked to […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics
Since the U.S. invasion in 2003, at least 1,546 troops have died in Iraq, including at least 1,176 who died as a result of hostile action, according to the Defense Department. The figures include four military civilians.
Those numbers have dropped precipitously since national elections at the end of January, but deaths are still being […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics
Montana’s role in this movement is significant because it’s the only state in the continental United States, west of the Mississippi River, that has passed a formal resolution adamantly opposing provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, which citizens and legislators believe subverts civil rights granted by the U.S. Constitution.
Montana is a red state which […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics
It may be just about the most inspiring sight imaginable: hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the main square of some capital city, demanding democratic self-rule. “They’re doing it in many different corners of the world,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last week, “places as varied as Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan and, on the […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics
Isn’t it about time we got a little angrier and a little more scandalised? On 5 May we will troop up to the polling booths having endured four weeks of unfathomably banal soundbites, platitudinous drivel and vapid party political broadcasts — and we will do so because we believe it is our duty and because […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics
Most of us, when emerging from intellectual childhood into intellectual adolescence, pass through a phase of earnest search for certainty about the world. For instance, George W. Bush recently read a book (by a Mr. Sharansky, we are told) and enjoyed a revelation. He discovered, as he informed us in his Inaugural […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics
Simply put, democracy is and has been degenerating into a brutish populism most often in the form of nationalism. The Modern Age has ended, and something very different and terrible is being born before our very eyes. This is the general theme of John Lukacs’ new book, Democracy and Populism: Fear and Hatred, […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics
Still more curious was Tony Blair’s immediate determination to go to Rome. No prime minister has ever attended a papal funeral before, and with good reason. Britain is not a Roman Catholic country — though admittedly anyone who has read the British newspapers over the past few days might be forgiven for supposing that it […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics
The notion that an all-powerful, centralized state should provide monolithic solutions to the ethical dilemmas of our times is not only misguided, but also contrary to our Constitution. Remember, federalism was established to allow decentralized, local decision making by states. Yet modern America seeks a federal solution for every perceived societal ill, ignoring constitutional […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics
Social problems kept in check during the authoritarian era of former president Askar Akayev are already surfacing in Kyrgyzstan, three weeks after he was removed from office by protesters angry at election results, grinding poverty and corruption by the ruling family.
On 7 April, tension was raised when people began to seize land on the […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics
Vladimir Putin has stepped into an acrimonious debate over who will succeed him by publicly suggesting for the first time that he could run for a third term as President.
Speaking on a visit to Germany, Mr Putin ruled out changing the Constitution to run for a third consecutive term in 2008, but said that […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics
The Netherlands will reject the European Union constitutional treaty in a national referendum on June 1 unless government and business can mobilise support rapidly, Dutch politicians are warning.
The outcome could prove academic if opinion polls prove accurate and the French reject the treaty three days earlier on May 29. Growing Dutch scepticism, however, could feed […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics
Instead of emulating the policies of pre-World War I Britain toward Germany, the United States should take a page from another chapter in British history. In the late 1800s, although not without tension, the British peacefully allowed the fledging United States to rise as a great power, knowing both countries were protected by the expanse […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics
Pope John Paul II will be remembered as the Pope who helped spark the carnage and killing and displacement of the Balkan conflicts. By recognizing Croatia, he started the ball rolling that resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent people. It was his act of recklessly and arrogantly recognizing Croatia that was partly to […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics
The Vatican is preparing to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan as part of an historic fence-mending exercise with Beijing that could allow Chinese Roman Catholics to practise freely for the first time in 50 years.
The deal, discussed by a senior cardinal as Pope John Paul II was on his deathbed, would pave the way for […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics
But Rothbard himself granted that his course was not wise, if what he sought was professional advancement. As he explained in a letter to Robert Kephart:
“Bob, old and wiser … heads have been giving me similar advice all my life, and I’m sure all that advice was right. … When I was a young libertarian […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics
Sicuani, a market town of about 30,000 people 150km south-east of the tourist resort of Cusco, is rarely mentioned during the day-to-day circus of Peruvian politics. In a sense, that makes it a perfect setting for a revolution.
Tomorrow the town is to host the launch of the Peruvian version of Bolivia’s Movement to Socialism (MAS), […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics
We sat there watching like we were a part of another world, in another galaxy. I’ve always sensed from reading various websites that American mainstream news is far-removed from reality — I just didn’t realize how far. Everything is so tame and simplified. Everyone is so sincere.
What’s more, I don’t understand the American fascination […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics
First there was Georgia, and then Ukraine, followed by Lebanon, and now Kyrgyzstan. Add to that the election in Iraq, and we had no choice but to agree that George W. Bush’s call for spreading political freedom had been winning the hearts and minds of democracy enthusiasts everywhere, including in Kyrgyzstan. The “Democracy Narrative” that […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics