A Daily Beast article recounts the trial of Pussy Riot and determines that they were being tried in a 17th century court. A great line from the article:
Imagine what would have happened if the judges in the Salem witch trials had encountered not their contemporaries but ours.
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I've been disturbed by the reports of militants gaining control in northern Mali and destroying the world heritage site at Timbuktu. Now this article discusses the region-wide destablizing effect of the removal of Qaddafi and the rise of militant groups. Are we looking at the possibility of another regional war in Africa?
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This column which discusses the original motivations for the creation of the State of Israel and how those need to be rescued from right-wing Israeli politics comes at a good time. This sort of thing was actively on my mind while reading Philip Roth's The Counterlife.
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A few years ago I first read the concerns that some have that the rapid growth rates of Christianity and Islam in Africa could spark a religious war in the 21st century. Particular concern focused on Nigeria which is split almost evenly between the two major religions.
On Sunday morning when news spread of the attacks on Christian churches, I was alarmed and wonder if this will be limited violence or the harbinger of something to come?
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What the dragon sees is a battered eagle trying to muscle its way out of an irreversible decline by trying to intimidate, isolate or at least sabotage the dragon's irreversible ascent back to where it has been for 18 of the past 20 centuries; enthroned as the king of the jungle.
It does give you a sense of how our national actions are viewed geopolitically, separated from our nationalistic quasi-religious worldview.
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The BBC's North American Editor, Mark Mardell, writes about Barack Obama's speech at Fort Bragg announcing the end of the occupation of Iraq. He rightly points out the contradictions.
This is more than a little awkward, intellectually.
Mr Obama comes close to agreeing with those who backed the invasion in the first place. That for all the fantasy about weapons of mass destruction, all the mistakes and lack of preparation, the world is a better place for the war.
But it is not politically awkward. Few will notice; few are talking about it.
It looks more like fair-minded generosity than hypocrisy.
But he is papering over the cracks between what he has always thought and what he has to say to the country.
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I read today that Romney is criticizing Obama for a supposed tough stance on Israel. I don't particularly find the Obama administration tough on Israel; it just seems that the Israeli governments are getting increasingly out-of-touch themselves.
But I also want to remind Gov. Romney of the tough line that the first Bush administration took with Israel. Remember this statement by Secretary of State James Baker:
In House testimony Secretary of State James Baker complained that if Israel's hawkish new government maintained the line of its first hours in office, Washington would have to give up trying to arrange Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. He added, "Everybody over there should know that the telephone number ((of the White House)) is 1-202-456-1414. When you're serious about peace, call us."
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,970468,00.html#ixzz1fsJX4nrR
This administration was able to eventually get Israel to the negotiating table. The 90's peace process really began with a conference in Madrid called and chaired by Baker, which was the first conference to involve representatives from the PLO.
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A very good essay on the death of Muammar Gaddafi.
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An interesting piece at The Daily Beast concludes that the true surprise is that Qaddafi ever ruled at all.
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