Bill on international issues

British tourists detained, deported for tweets

2012-02-02T09:01:00.000-08:00

In a scenario that vaguely recalls the film "Like Crazy", two British tourists are being detained and deported for a "threatening tweet", as in this Huffington Post story by Allie Compton, link. They also went on a watch list quickly.

Homeland Security is putting people from modern western countries like Britain on lists because it is difficult to parse them from hostile immigrants, as from Pakistan and other places, as in this World News (website url) story. It takes loosely worded statements on social media quite seriously.

Iran said to pose a major domestic terror threat to US, replacing Al Qaeda as the biggest danger

2012-02-01T05:39:00.000-08:00

Officials in the intelligence community told the US Senate that Iran is somewhat likely to attempt terrorist attacks within the United States or western countries.

Iran is provoked by economic sanctions, a recent assassination, and skirmishes over the Straits of Hormuz. The biggest existential problem is that Israel would mount a pre-emptive attack, but that the United States, being softer, larger and less socially cohesive, would make a much easier target for retaliation. Or Iran could try to close Hormuz, and the US Navy could partially reopen it (though sunken ships are hard to remove) and provoke retaliation.

Iran is becoming a bigger threat than Al Qaeda (which it does not have close ties with because of the Sunni v. Shiite issue) and has ties to Hezbollah in Latin America, Chavez and Castro. Iran seems to be moving from the typical fascist model to the extreme Left dictatorship model (toward North Korea), even if predicated on religion.

The Washington Times has warned a few times that a small boat off US waters could launch a nuclear blast in order to produce an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) effect over a wide area.

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Is "ACTA" an international SOPA? Not exactly.

2012-01-28T14:25:00.000-08:00

Recently, some groups such as Electronic Frontier Foundation and Righthaven Victims have been vocalizing opposition to the Anti-Councterfeiting Trade Agreement, to which the president signed on last fall. It appears that it could go into effect in June 2012.

Here’s a copy (from Australia), link.

Here’s the website of Stop ACTA, link.

And “Read Write Web” gives a lot of the reasons for objection to it. For one thing, it seems to gut the American concept of “Fair Use”. It can make crimes out of things that normally lead just to civil action. The link is here.

News media report that Kader Arif, the “rapporteur” (“official investigative reporter”) for the EU with regards to the Treaty resigned over objections to it, as here with the BBC story.

The one potentially “good” thing about ACTA would seem to be that it could strengthen the ability of countries to seize the assets of “digital pirates” in other countries without the need to pass laws forcing other parties into downstream liability (SOPA and PIPA).

More details will be forthcoming.

Revolutionary group MEK in Iran: would it help or hurt US if it toppled regime?

2012-01-27T07:07:00.000-08:00

I ran across a controversy, as to how the United States should view the MEK, or PMOI (People's Mujahedin of Iran), as expressed in the movement and site "DelistMEK", here. The group is credited as having passed secrets on Iran's nuclear program and yet is known for notorious abuses itself, especially within its own ranks (the "self-criticism" sessions or shame therapy). The "Delist" group (apparently lobbying to get the US State Department to change policy) was running broadcast television ads Thursday.

Wikipedia has a long history here.

The group, or its predecessors, was associated with the fall of the Shah and the rise of the Ayatollahs and supported the hostage taking in 1979, leading to the "444 days" that came to an end only when Ronald Reagan took office in 1981. Separately, EDS had sponsored a private commando raid to free two of its employees from Iran in 1979 (held separately), big news in Dallas at the time after I had just moved there.

As we learn from the Arab spring (and a general lesson of history), governments put in place after revolutions are often more repressive than the regimes they have evicted.

Bad karma for US computer users? NY Times story on bad conditions for workers at computer parts manufacturers in China

2012-01-26T10:00:00.000-08:00

Well, do western computer (especially Apple) users have bad karma? The New York Times on Thursday has a lead story “In China, the Human Costs that Are Built into an iPad”, link here.

The article discusses worker safety in the many parts factories around Chengdu, China, including living conditions and dormitory life. We depend on workers to do this for us. The audit procedures from Apple are described in detail. How much did Steve Jobs involve himself with worker safety overseas?

Yet Donald Trump keeps saying, "The Chinese are not our friends".

Wikipedia attribution link for map of Chengdu.

Navy Seals pull off perfect strike in Somalia rescue

2012-01-25T20:42:00.000-08:00

For the Navy Seals rescue from Seal Team 6, of two American hostages, one can say only, "awesome". 100% success. The presidents was informed just before his State of the Union Address Tuesday night.

There are still about 140 hostages held by pirates in Somalia

We have come a long way from "Black Hawk Down" in 1993.

Wikipedia attribution link for Somalia map.

Stopping media piracy should be responsibility of overseas law enforcement, not service providers

2012-01-18T11:33:00.000-08:00

The current controversy over bills in Congress to oppose Internet piracy (SOPA and Protect-IP), resulting in one-day blackouts at sites like Wikipedia and Reddit, could place an onus on ordinary Internet sellers and publishers and service providers to avoid any contact with “rogue” foreign websites.

In the United States, sites involved in illegal activity (including piracy, some kinds of spam, drugs, child pornography, etc) can be effectively shut down by seizing hardware and assets of the purportedly offending parties. This does happen now under Immigrations Customs and Enforcement under Homeland Security. In some cases, navigation to the affected site is intercepted by an ICE message.

When the offending company or person is in a foreign country, this may not work. Therefore, some in Congress want to burden Internet service providers and ultimately Internet users with the responsibility of not doing business with overseas entities accused by legacy media companies of piracy. This could make continuation of many sites and smaller businesses impossible because of the “contingent burden” and downstream liability.

One way this problem should be handled is for the US government, through its Department of State, to encourage law enforcement in other countries to take similar action to seize companies in their own countries with blatantly illegal operations. This will be easier with major western countries (using Interpol) than with Russia and China and maybe some smaller countries. The responsibility to avoid piracy should rest with law enforcement against actual offenders, not against other users “drafted” into the battle.

Unitarian minister from Uganda to speak about anti-gay bill

2012-01-15T16:53:00.000-08:00

The Washington Blade Jan. 13 ran two stories about the vitriolic anti-gay legislation proposed in Uganda. The main one, by Brian T. Carney on p. 23, regards an appearance by a Unitarian Ugandan minister in Silver Spring, MD Jan. 17, story link here. The bill would imprison others who failed to report homosexual acts and would even require extradition t Uganda. It’s unlikely, I hope, that western countries would comply with such extradition requests. This bill is predicated on a mentality of scapegoating, that homosexuality destroys the social cohesion within families. It’s rather odd to blame people who have left home for the behavior of people “left behind”. Earlier stories in the Metro Weekly had explained that African culture regards having children as a moral duty in order to preserve the vicarious “immortality” of ancestors. Willful failure to procreate is seen as “killing a family”, on a par with killing an individual person.

Another small sidebar (p 4) by Lou Chibarro Jr. reports that an organization called Trans Africa (site) has asked the United Negro College Fund to cancel an invitation to the ambassador from Uganda to the US to speak at one of its functions.

There has been a lot of criticism of some American "evangelical" preachers for fomenting the situation in Uganda.

Churches encourage contact with religious persecution victims overseas; American ex-Marine a pawn in showdown with Iran

2012-01-09T19:30:00.000-08:00

Here's another bulletin board ad at a church I saw about religious persecution in Africa, this one inviting people to send text messages to specific people. I would wonder how many people in the worst areas even have cell phones.

Tensions continue with Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, with an American (ex-Marine) of Iranian descent being sentenced to death as a supposed "spy" while visiting grandparents.

Gingrich says Iran must stay nuke-free under all circumstances

2012-01-03T21:28:00.000-08:00

On a night when Newt Gingrich is falling way behind in the Iowa causes, PBS (on Charlie Rose) aired a recent interview where Newt said that the highest priority must go to stop Iran from getting control of nuclear resources under any circumstances.

Gingrich seems to consider Iran the most dangerous existential threat on the planet, perhaps like to attempt an EMP attack as discussed previously.

Iran has been ambiguous today on the Hormuz issue, saying it will not act, but executing maneuvers in the area. Even a slight incident could cause oil prices to spike.

Santorum seems to be migrating toward personal morality as a predictor of public morality and as something that motivates bad actors to challenge our freedoms.

Iran warned the US not to allow a US aircraft carrier that was leaving return to the region.

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Birth rates fall in Brazil, much of Latin America, even in rural areas

2011-12-30T12:04:00.000-08:00

Even in developing countries, even in the countryside sometimes, birth rates are dropping. Juan Feroro has a front page story in the Dec. 30, 2011 Washington Post, ‘The incredible shrinking family. In Brazil and throughout Latin America, fertility declines as attitudes change”, link here.

The birthrate in Latin America has dropped from six children per family in 1960 to 2.3 now.

Toward the end of the article, Brazil’s career women are said to be asking “Why do they need children?”

Another reason is that previous dictators, while wanting to populate rural areas in Communist style, actually drove families into cities where children were a “burden”.

Iran expands threat to close Strait of Hormuz

2011-12-27T13:20:00.000-08:00

As a follow-up to a Washington Times warning on November 15, the New York Times is now reporting, in a story by Rick Gladstone today, that Iran has threatened to blockade the Strait of Hormuz if the US or the West tries to impose any sanctions at all to undermine its nuclear energy (and probably nuclear weapons) program. The link is here.

In other words, Iran has expanded its threat to beyond the consequences of an attack from Israel (or for that matter Sunni forces). It says that not a single drop of oil would get through.

All of this creates a serious policy issue for the Obama administration, as to how to position itself militarily. It might have to keep the Strait open by force. Otherwise there could be severe and sudden supply and oil price problems early in 2012. But there is no Soviet Union (not even in the movies) stopping it now.

CNN has some detailed analysis Dec. 28 here, by Tim Lister, who calls this sabre-rattling and maintains a prolonged blockade is not possible. However, in 1980 there was fear that it could be possible.

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Washington Times calls for political anmesty for Christians in Muslim countries

2011-12-25T09:35:00.000-08:00

I’ve never been one to buy into the idea of perceiving oneself primarily as a member of a “persecuted” group. As I noted here recently (Dec. 4), Christian denominations sometimes focus on members of their faith in various parts of the world as persecuted groups. But so does everyone else in the Middle East. All sides are “guilty” of this. Jimmy Carter once called this a kind of apartheid.

The Washington Times, nonetheless, has an important editorial Christmas Day, “Being Christian is a death sentence: America needs to give shelter to persecuted believers from Muslim lands,” link here.

WSJ reports on volunteer vacations, mostly overseas

2011-12-20T19:43:00.000-08:00

If you feel the moral urge to volunteer big time, you can look at the Wall Street Journal Monday Dec. 19, “Saving the World: One Vacation at a Time”, by Nancy Tergesen, a whole section of the paper in print, the Journal Report, link here. Call this "voluntourism".

You can collar big cats in Namibia, look for signs of global warming in the Hudson Bay (I like these two) or teach English in Peru. Many of the opportunities are physically demanding and in remote areas. And you pay for them, but you might get tax breaks. And you might share community duties, like KP.

I did go on a few Sierra Club trips when I lived in Dallas in the 1980s (one was a visit to the Glen Rose Nuclear Power Plant in 1982), and in 1984 I tried a “Spring Work Camp” for the Lama Foundation in New Mexico (just two days of it).

So what's next for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea?

2011-12-19T08:56:00.000-08:00

Another Sunday night surprise. Kim Jong Il drops dead on a train of a cardiac arrest at age 69.

All is quiet now. But what I recall from the mid 1990s was that North Korea was thought of as the most likely site for a next war, not the Middle East again. Al Qaeda and Iran weren’t perceived as dangerous as North Korea then.

And around 2003 George Tenet, CIA director during the period after 9/11, warned Congress that North Korea was capable of lobbing a nuclear warhead all the way to the US Pacific Northwest. Others warn that a hostile North Korea could hide nuclear weapons in merchant ships or rogue vessels commandeered by terrorists (same comment for Iran). And don’t forget the possible EMP implications.

Kim Jong Un: Who is he? Choi Jong Kun gives some analysis on CNN to Kristie Lu Stout.

On Monday night, CNN was saying that what the North Korean military does in the next two days will be "decisive." Really?

Iraq: is it over? How will Iraq treat its bloggers?

2011-12-17T10:12:00.000-08:00

Finally, the War in Iraq, subject of so many documentaries, and cause of so many devastating war wounds, is over.

I remember March 19, 2003, being at the Bryant Lake Bowl in Minneapolis for a small independent film screening for IFP. After the screening, as people went to the bar, the business turned on the TV in the auditorium, just as the “Shock and awe” attack on Baghdad started.

I can even remember when the first Persian Gulf War started in January 1991, just as I was arriving at a Bally’s Spa for a workout, and it was on their TV’s.

Already, there are stories about problems on Iraq's borders with its own defense. How will Iraq behave with respect to criticism and blogging?

Later, Saturday, CNN was reporting more local violence in Iraq, such as an attack against a young woman in front of her home when she was the sole support for her family.

Wikipedia attribution link for picture of ziggurat.

We’re very much left with “Obama’s War” – Afghanistan.

Blogger, in post-Mubarak Egypt, still sentenced to prison for insulting military

2011-12-16T08:46:00.000-08:00

Maikel Nabel, a prominent blogger in Egypt, has been sentenced to two years in prison on charges of insulting the Egyptian military (reminding us of Thailand's laws against insulting the royalty), as crackdowns on free speech continue well after the outer of Mubarak.

Nabel was convicted based on comments he made on his personal blog and Facebook account. The story could underscore the observation that authoritarian governments are not above taking advantage of Facebook’s real identity policy. It also shows that governments ousted by revolutions are often replaced by governments that continue many repressive practices.

Leila Fadel has the story in the Thursday Washington Post here.

Nabil has been continuing a hunger strike.

During elections the Muslim Brotherhood’s “Freedom and Justice” party seems to run ahead of the conservative Salafist Nour Party.

SOPA contradicts recommendations of OECD on Internet Policy

2011-12-15T05:53:00.000-08:00

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), with 34 member states (including Egypt) announced on Dec. 13 its Recommendation for Internet Policy Making, here.

Katitza Rodriquez has a commentary for Electronic Frontier Foundation this morning, announced on Twitter, which shows how SOPA and Protect-IP undermine the credibility of the US as a leader in Internet freedom, with its sudden rush to “defend copyright at any cost.” Already China is taking notice and there are signs it is using the objections of major US media industries to “amateurism” to justify its continued veil of censorship. The EFF link is here. What kind of example do we set for Thailand with its "lese majeste" laws.

SOPA is due for “markup” before the US House of Representatives today, Dec. 15.

Of course, there is a technical question with international ramifications: Is it really possible for the US to segregate "foreign sites" and treat them differently? The New York Times had recommended that idea as a compromise.

Teenager escapes from kidnappers tied to Al Qada in Philippines

2011-12-13T06:56:00.000-08:00

Lindsay Murcoh and Al Jacinto in an Australian newspaper have a riveting account of the escape of 14-year old Kevin Lunsmann from kidnappers in the Philippines thought to be associated with Al Qaeda.

His mother had been released in October but he was still held in captivity. He escaped through a waterway and survived in the jungle until arriving at a tribal village.

The presence of Al Qaeda in the Philippines was covered heavily in the media shortly after 9/11.

Here is the link.

The EMP threat: Newt Gingrich may be right to warn us (but he misses the real problem)

2011-12-12T08:17:00.000-08:00

Maybe GOP candidate Newt Gingrich, however polarizing he is (and intellectual as a college professor) reads my blogs. The New York Times this morning has a front page story about his concern over the possibility of a terrorist or enemy EMP attack with a high altitude blast. The story, by William J. Btoad, is “Among Gingrich’s Passions, a Doomsday Vision”, link here.

Gringrich made a warning that Iran could bring down our civilization in the debates Saturday night, and not too many noticed.

The Times article says that if you’re going to the trouble to set off a blast, you’d probably go for nuclear destruction anyway.

Hawaii actually experienced EMP damage in 1962 after an American thermonuclear test in the Pacific.

It’s true that EMP damage would be “permanent” and take months to repair.

But the greater danger may be, as the Washington Times has pointed out before, terrorists commandeering a boat offshore and launching a medium altitude blast, causing more localized damage, or even the idea that terrorists could commandeer special military microwave hardware and inflict EMP damage on selected areas. That possibility is implied by an item in the Ordnance Museum at Aberdeen Proving Grounds and has been discussed here before, as such weapons have been used in Iraq and probably Afghanistan (“Obama’s War”)

A local EMP strike is demonstrated in the movie “Oceans 11” (2001) but the lights could not come right back on, as they do in Las Vegas in the hit movie (right after the “smash and grab job”).

Popular Science discussed these possibilities in an article that appeared just before 9/11 and curiously can’t be found online today.

I suppose if hostile alien extraterrestrials existed and wanted to take over, they would start with an EMP blast, and there would be nothing we could do about it! So even on that count, Hollywood has it wrong. As one friend said one time, “I will accept nothing less.” Or, “the world ended yesterday and you were too sinful to notice.”

Man sentenced in Thailand for translating, linking to book that "insults monarchy"; "lese majeste" laws

2011-12-10T08:00:00.000-08:00

There has been a major story about the conviction of Joe Gordon for “lese majeste” in Thailand, for translating “The King Never Smiles”, with a sentence of 2.5 years.

There is also the element that he posted links to the book on the web. In the US, the idea that one could incur legal sanctions merely for providing hyperlinks is controversial at best, and usually isn’t actionable (although some say SOPA could change that).

Thailand’s laws about “insulting the monarchy” are the strictest in the world, comparable to issues with insulting Muhammad in Islamic countries. Bloggers from the west need to ponder these risks before visiting these countries, should their work be discovered while they are in such countries.

Here is a Wordpress story.

Here is the AP story on YouTube:

Barbara Walters confronts Syrian president Assad

2011-12-07T21:08:00.000-08:00

Barbara Walters has a transcript at ABC on her interview with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad here. On Nightline, she said she was surprised how calm the streets were in some places, while demonstrations fomented nearby. Assad denied the reports of violence against his own people.

Assad is said to have promised presidential elections by 2014 with opposition parties. Walters thinks it is too late.

Walters confronted Assad with the charges made by the UN of his crimes against humanity. He says that the United Nations is not "credible".

Wikipedia attribution link for map of Syria.

Little notes about international evangelism

2011-12-04T18:04:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of tiny items I noticed in Church today.

At the First Baptist Church of the City of Washington DC, there is a map showing in which countries Christianity is outlawed by state religions, and others where it is officially tolerated but repressed. I was surprised to see “progressive” and “moderate” Turkey on the latter list, as well as India.

This is the way the evangelistic community looks at the world. It's interesting and striking to see the word "persecuted".

At a Presbyterian Church in Arlington, I saw a sign looking for donations for student desks in southern Sudan – is that Darfur?

And at a bazaar at Washington-Lee High School on Saturday I picked up this poster on the parallels between Lincoln and Kennedy, the latter of whom got us through the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 (while I was at NIH -- a bad and falsely sheltered period of my life).

Dec. 6:

I noticed a sign in Shirlington, Arlington VA, "Wheels to Africa, Donate a Bike". Here's the website.

NYC new WTC starts to look closer to done; 9/11 Memorial visit popular, crowded, and secure

2011-12-01T14:53:00.000-08:00

The new World Trade Center is starting to look sharp!

The visit process to the NYC 9/11 Memorial (site) is complicated (your pass is checked several times, and you go through security), but the pool memorials are done, and the Liberty Center building is starting to reach toward its final height.

Photography of the actual construction, which goes into bedrock about 40 feet, is not permitted.

Back in 2002, original predictions had called for completion of the memorial by 2008.

Homeland Security drags feet on political asylum for apparently gay Saudi diplomat

2011-11-25T17:23:00.000-08:00

The Washington Blade, on Nov. 18 on p 10, in a story by Lou Chibbaro, Jr., reports that the United States Department of Homeland Security has at least at first denied political asylum to a Saudi diplomat outed as gay by the Los Angeles consulate for Saudi Arabia. The link for the story about Ali Ahmad Asseri is here.

An original story had appeared Sept. 11, 2010, authored by Michael Isikoff, had appeared on MSNBC here.

The Blade reports that the political asylum application was reported recently by Rasheed Abou-Alshamh at RasheedsWorld.com. When I checked that site on Firefox, I got a warning of unsafe activity from Webroot, but not from any other of my site advisories.

Some sent back to Saudi Arabia and publicly outed could face execution. On the other hand, people have told me that closeted gay life in private spaces is quite common among the wealthy in the Arab world, and underground meeting places are well known and "overlooked" by authorities.

CNN reports that release of Americans in Egypt seems to be progressing

2011-11-24T21:31:00.000-08:00

CNN reports that Egyptian authorities are in the process of releasing three American students, who had been arrested at protests at Tahir Square. The mother of Derrik Sweeney spoke to CNN, but she has not spoken to him. She had said that her son stood up for what he believes in and that his willingness to travel to protest was consistent for him.

The young people had been accused of throwing gas bottles at police, and they maintained that the bottles belonged to someone else.

Earlier CNN had reported that a release was expected.

Jihane Nojaim , who had written the film “The Control Room” about Al-Jazeera, has also been arrested, according to Karim Amer, the Lebanon Daily Star story here .

Generally, when dictators are overthrown, it is very difficult for replacement governments to observe what we expect as democratic values for a long time. Political revolution that sticks is very difficult.

CNN: more on Israel's threat to Iran, on what presidential candidates should know about foreign policy

2011-11-20T07:11:00.000-08:00

Sunday morning, Candy Crowley on CNN interviewed Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State under President Bush, and asked her what a GOP presidential candidate needed to know about foreign policy – given some gaffes recently on Libya. She said – have a general knowledge. The rest is OJT after inauguration.

She also said she would not come back to government under a new GOP administration and said that she (who is single) enjoyed being a college professor because she could open young people up to opportunity.

And Fareed Zakaria took up the grim topic that Israel really is contemplating attacking Iran. Zakaria interviewed Ehud Barak, Israel Defense Minister. Zakaria asked if Israel has the technical or military capacity to take out the Iranian nuclear program. Such an event could have grave implications for oil supply.

Iran would close Persian Gulf oil exports if Israel attacks

2011-11-15T08:38:00.000-08:00

The Washington Times, the DC area’s “conservative” paper, is warning that Iran might try to shut down oil shipping through the Straits of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf as an outcome of tensions over its supposed nuclear weapons program, which Iran insists is only for civilian purposes.

The fear is that Israel will attack Iran, provoking retaliation. Then the Obama administration would have to contemplate war to keep the Straits open, put it in a position recalling Bush on Iraq. Again, we’ll have “Obama’s War”, #2.

There was a lot of tension in the Straits late in 1980, just before the election of Reagan.

During the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, PO Keith Meinhold, soon to become a figure in the debate on gays in the military, served on special planes that hunted for submarines in the Hormuz area. He says he was shot at once.

The link for Rowan Scarborough’s story is here.

Washington Nationals player Ramos found safe, returning from kidnap in Venezuela; State Dept warns travelers on culture, lack of security

2011-11-11T21:51:00.000-08:00

Washington Nationals baseball player (catcher) Wilson Ramos was found safe in Venezuela Friday, according to media reports, including this story by Major League Baseball, Adam Berry, here. Ramos is OK, and no ransom has been paid. This has been an unusual incident in its course. Nevertheless, MLB recommends that players from unstable countries with weak or anti-western governments hire their own security, particularly if playing winter ball.

It remains to be seen how much involvement was necessary from the Obama administration, including state department and FBI The US State Department warns travelers of poor security, corruption and rampant crime in Venezuela, here.

In Venezuela, the criminal practice has been to kidnap relatives of wealthy targets, to take advantage of the family-center culture. The left wing environment of Chavez may contribute to the occurrence of these crimes, or they could be related to drug cartels (as in the 2001 movie “Collateral Damage”).

A rally was held early evening at National’s Park.

Charlie Hebdo incident in France sounds a bit like the Danish cartoon controversy

2011-11-10T15:13:00.000-08:00

Here’s a pretty subtle story on p A19 of today’s Wall Street Journal, “A French lesson in free speech” by Anne Jolis, link (WSJ may require subscription to read entire article).

The tall tale concerns the strange career of Charlie Hebdo, who sometime around 2001 took himself off the Web because of the reputation for scoundrels. Nevertheless, he made a lot of online satire, even with a “Shariah Weekly” edition of his printed leaflet and online paper (link). , which apparently led to an attack on his office in Paris on Nov. 2 (BBC story link).

Yet Bruce Crumley in Time criticized Hebdo for “constantly provoking crises that we don’t need”, and saying Hebdo is “no free speech martyr”, link

And here’s a Wordpress posting on the incident, called “Promotheus Unbound”, link.

This does sound a lot like the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad Cartoon Controversy.

Italy could be a much bigger problem than Greece (then, Spain); "demographic winter?"

2011-11-09T16:20:00.000-08:00

Nick Thompson of CNN has a sobering article “Has Italy Passed the Point of No Return?” He gives a good explanation of bond yields and sovereign debt. Silvio Berlusconi will step down once the government can agree on austerity measures enough to convince investors to let Italy borrow at a reasonable rate, less than 7%.

Italy’s economy is about 7 times the size of Greece, and a default would have a severe effect on the entire global financial system. 401K’s in the US could be hit much harder than with Greece.

The CNN link is here.

To put it bluntly, many of Italy's problems are demographic: not enough children (despite parenthood subsidies), retirement ages that are too early, pension commitments that are too big. A warning for the US? This problem will follow the entire developed world.

The US Dow fell almost 400 points today, over 3%.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Greece behaves itself to accept EU bailout -- else be quarantined

2011-11-07T07:26:00.000-08:00

So, the prime minister of Greece tries to broker “the people” by proposing a referendum, on whether existing Greeks will willing to have their pensions cut and even salaries cut so their country doesn’t go bankrupt, and retirees overseas don’t lose on their investments. It sounds like a variation on the Leftist “class warfare”. No, it's more about "demographic winter".

So the government falls, a new one must form, and apparently Greece will fall in line with what us investors in the rest of the world expect, to pay their bills. The US Dow was up slightly Monday morning. Wall Street likes it, temporarily. But the AP (David Randall) reports that investors are already that the Greece virus will spread to Italy, Spain and Portugal, story here.

It might have been easier for Greece to leave the EU and go back to printing its own money, so it could become another Argentina, while quarantining itself.

I remember, when landing in Lisbon in April 2001 on a Europe trip, a cab driver’s saying that Portugal would benefit from the Euro with real estate development. Look at Spain and Portugal now.

Washington DC church helps establish important library in Liberia

2011-11-06T12:02:00.000-08:00

Today, during the potluck dinner at the First Baptist Church of the City of Washington DC, there was a report of a new library established (in June 2011) in Monrovia, Liberia (on the coast of West Africa), the building almost on the beach itself, called the “Francis A. Dennis Sr. Memorial Library”. It will seek collections of books on international relations particularly for countries in its region of Africa.

Liberia is one of two countries in the region not founded by colonialism and mercantilism; it was actually formed by freed slaves.

Companies have used Liberia for ship registries. That was true of an insurance company I worked for, USLICO, in the early 1990s; it owned a ship registry and actually promoted someone to manage it. In 1995, the company was acquired by NWNL which would become ReliaStar and then ING.

Liberia is about 85% Christian.

Wikipedia attribution link for picture of Liberian students studying by candlelight.

Australian filmmaker seeks funds to make documentary about coal, environmental damage in Australia

2011-11-05T07:59:00.000-07:00

Haw River Films and the Bimblebox Nature Refuge in Australia are seeking to raise money for a documentary film about coal and gas mining in Australia (particularly Queensland and New South Wales). They have a fundraising deadline in December 2011. The details are (website url) here

Haw River Films produced the film “Mountaintop Removal” about the practice in the US associated with strip mining for coal, reviewed on my movies blog (Oct. 16, 2009).

I got an email from Mike O’Connell in Australia which reads as follows:

“Mike O'Connell here I'm writing you because you purchased a copy of my last film Mountain Top Removal. Your purchase funded ton's of outreach and made my new project Bimblebox possible. I filmed this feature documentary entirely in Australia during the last year. Bimblebox is basically finished and we've submitted to loads of festivals. If you're interested in seeing a clip we have a Kickstarter site and hope you'll check it out.

“Bimblebox is global in scope and examines Australia's position as the worlds largest fossil fuel exporter. Australia supplies one third of the world's coal trade.

“I tried not to make another "coal is bad" movie, Bimblebox includes solutions as well from an amazing organization called Beyond Zero Emissions.

“The twenty something founder is sort of the Julian Assange of the climate movement.

“Once again I can't tell you how much your dvd purchase meant to me as a way to continue pursuing my passion for moving images, stories and music.”

Wikipedia attribution link for picture of Kalgoorlie open pit mine (Western Australia).

Contractor employees living in Arabia or Muslim countries, in compounds: how does gay life work?

2011-11-01T10:26:00.000-07:00

A personal conversation last night with someone who had worked in Saudi Arabia and other Arabian countries as a contractor gave me an idea of how gay life goes in the Middle East. And it’s definitely “don’t ask don’t tell”, even in more moderate countries like Oman or Abu Dhabi.

Arab countries don’t have gay bars as such, and in many areas alcohol is not allowed. In places like Dubai, alcohol is available to non Muslims in hotel bars and private clubs (for example, here).

In many places, I’m told, young foreign nationals accumulate to be “picked up”. A lot goes on, but no one talks about it. The same is true on “compounds”.

The hostility of Islam to homosexuality (in men) is well known, which may be ironic because of the polygamy in some Muslim societies (leaving some men without the opportunity to have women). There is a cultural norm that says sons must protect the honor of their father (that is, the marital relations which the sons did not choose).

There is an earlier posting about gay life in Saudi Arabia on the GLBT blog, April 15, 2007, based on an Atlantic story.

There is a lot of material on the web about compound life in Saudi Arabia for foreign employees of large contractors.

There are references that explain the difficulties and expense of moving into a compound, here. That would sound like an employer responsibility.

Back in 1980, I was told by someone who had worked in Saudi Arabia that religious police did come onto compounds to check for alcohol. That may not be happening now.

Picture: Tanzania House (apparently the embassy itself), 22nd St, Washington DC

Argentina threatens reporting by newspapers on inflation problems; bloggers next?

2011-10-28T07:16:00.000-07:00

The Washington Post on Friday has an important editorial about “shooting the messenger”, particularly in Argentina, concerning the re-election of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, link here.

The editorial reports a campaign to silence media, particularly major newspapers (Clarin and La Nacion), that repot the truth about Argentina’s inflation problems. There have been attempts to force newspapers to sell assets or possibly submit to government takeover.

Not discussed here would be the impact on bloggers, so much an issue in the Middle East (with the Arab Spring) and China, or the role of social media, where, again, the anonymity policies (which seem to be changing) could be important.

Will Electronic Frontier Foundation report in this problem?

Fareed Zakaria covered Argentina on Oct. 30, and said that Kirchner has hiding inflation in order to have unsustainable social programs and temporary prosperity.

Is this the time to watch Sigourney Weaver in the 90s film “Death and the Maiden”?

Wikipedia attribution link for Argentina topographical map.

Wikileaks suspends publication of new material on site, says MC/Visa/Paypal blockade threatens its existence

2011-10-24T10:03:00.000-07:00

Wikileaks (link) has announced that it has suspended publication of any new information, since its source of funds is dessicated by the Mastercard, Visa, PayPal, and Western Union bans which wipe out 95% of the financial support. Quote: "We are forced to temporarily suspend publishing whilst we secure our economic survival."

The archives of information by individual country appear to still be up at the site.

There are many stories, such as this one by Reuters, where Assange says the “blockade” threatens the site’s existence. Of course, the government has jawboned the major financial institutions into blocking the ability of Assange to receive support in a normal manner. What if the government could do this for just political reasons? Is this like "The Pentagon Papers" case?

Assange makes his plea for donations (how?) on YouTube.

The American Constitution Society has a presentation, “Some Insight on WikiLeaks and First Amendment Protection”, dated Dec. 1, 2010, here

The video asks the question, if you have a shield law, do you “license the press”? What are the “proper controls” for putting out information that could jeopardize troops?

Mixed reactions in Basque region to ETA declaration to end all violence

2011-10-22T15:24:00.000-07:00

The militant group ETA has declared it will abandon violence in its attempt for political autonomy in Spain, but tens of thousands of separatists staged a street rally in Bilbao today, according to the Huffington Post, here.

I visited Bilbao in April 2001 to visit the Guggenheim and stayed in a hotel a few blocks away from ETA but the scene was quiet. There was a marathon run there that Sunday. But the city seems strange, a bit like it was on another planet. The city has street signs in both Spanish and Basque. I also visited San Sebastian-Donesta on that trip. Only the latter was reached by train; you take a bus 60 miles through coastal mountains t reach Bilbao.

An AP story in the Taiwan news, that Spain hails the decision, is here.

Hit-run incident in China leads to questioning of moral values in the "Peoples' Republic of Capitalism"

2011-10-21T05:33:00.000-07:00

Keith Richburg has multiple stories on The Washington Post about an incident in China where bystanders refused to help a child after being struck by a hit-run driver, such as one on p A7 Thursday, here.

The story suggests that atheistic values may contribute to apathy. But there are legal considerations. In the Chinese system, good Samaritans might be implicated, and the driver himself pays less in fines if the patient dies (I wondered, why doesn’t he go to jail?)

While materialism is discusses as a cause, I’m struck by reports of the collective moral instruction that circulated decades ago about the Cultural Revolution. Today that period is seen as indicative of a lack of human rights in China. But at the time, the far Left sometimes praised it as a way of making everyone “pay his dues” and “share a common vision”. I recall a “People’s Party “ candidate for Congress in northern New Jersey in 1973 who actually praised the Chinese for their “morality” and decried the profit motive. Then he went along to set up the “Make Up Your Mind Bookstore” in Madison, NJ, which I visited once.

Does anyone remember Ted Koppel's 2008 Discovery Channel report "The People's Republic of Capitalism", as written up by Felicia Lee in the NY Times here (see TV blog, July 9, 2008).

Gaddafi reported killed (or at least captured) by rebels in Libya; story developing

2011-10-20T05:49:00.000-07:00

Various news sources report that Muammar Gaddafi has been killed by rebels in his hometown of Sirte, Libya. Some sources say he was “merely” captured.

The Huffington Post report is here.

Reportedly he died of gunshot wounds to both legs, which sounds medically unusual, unless, say, a femoral artery were hit.

This is what people “suspected” on May 1 before the announcement of bin Laden’s death.

ABC's early announcement Thursday.

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

WJLA has a graphic photo here. Early Thursday afternoon, major media sources confirmed the Gaddafi's death.

Could this overthrow have happened without social media (Facebook and Twitter) used anonymously (a controversy since Facebook now forbids anonymity or false identities, necessary to oppose authoritarian regimes). Is "Arab Spring" migrating into "Arab Autumn"? This had all started with the beating of a street vendor in Tunisia, and look how it expanded.

CNN has a graphic video of Gaddafi's last moments alive"

My quick visit to the Embassy of Israel

2011-10-17T21:12:00.000-07:00

In conjunction with Reel Affirmations 20, I visited the Embassy of Israel this evening, at Van Ness St. and International Ave. True, there are no electronics at all allowed (so no direct photography), and when you go through security you walk into an outdoor courtyard that from which you then go to a meeting room. (I’ll do the movie review tomorrow.) One can park at the University of the District of Columbia garage on Van Ness for $8.

But the Embassy had a lot of take-home literature to offer, emphasizing the progressive and open nature of its society. The government has a president in charge of everything, and a prime minister, and a unicameral legislator, so it is probably less partisan than ours. (That would please CNN's Fareed Zakaria, as he talks about partisanship on his "Global Public Square".) The offered free literature has a pamphlet called “Letter from Israel” with a picture of “The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel” (1948).

It was pointed out that Israel has allowed gays to serve openly in its military since 1993 (after some period of being expected to “live at home” as was discussed in the 1993 Rand report, which considered Israel rather progressive and possibly helpful to Clinton’s plan to lift the ban in the US), and has equal rights for LGBT couples. Well, not quite, if you read the Wikipedia article, or this one.True, Israel honors gay marriages performed abroad.

But the important aspect of life in Israel is the national socialization, which everyone how emigrates there must accept. Military service is usually compulsory. There can be considerable pressure to live in the controversial settlements. One probably does not want live there if one does not accept the idea that group expropriation of the rights of others (Palestinians on the West Bank) is necessary for security. The conservative idea of living under a “shared vision” passed along through family can be tried by those living there.

From my knowledge, I pretty much share Jimmy Carter’s criticism of “Palestinian apartheid” (Books blog, Dec. 25, 2007). I can remember when working in NYC in the 1970s that coworkers with Jewish background at NBC would say, “give the Palestinians their homeland and we can have some peace.” And then they would say, they weren’t supposed to be quoted saying that. The two-state solution has been discussed again recently, and to me it makes a lot of sense.

In the spring of 1982, MCC Dallas sponsored a trip to Israel. I did not have the vacation time to go, but people who did go reported conversations in which they were told "every adult citizen of Israel is a soldier."

Wikipedia attribution link for Temple Mount picture, similar (but not as wide-ranged) to picture in auditorium

IMF figurehead predicts European meltdown, 2008-style, by end of October as debt-laden countries fall like dominoes

2011-10-07T20:44:00.000-07:00

IMF Advisor Robert Shapiro has predicted total global financial meltdown by the end of October, according to a story on leftish AlterNet, link here. The meltdown would start in the sovereign debt area and spread to all major financial institutions in Europe and Britain.

The AP has a story today on credit downgrades for Italy and Spain, which are the next dominoes to fall after Greece, Yahoo! copy here.

But US markets were relatively flat today.

More of my clips from “Occupy DC” aka “Occupy Wall Street”.

EFF analyzes the dangers of social networking site policies banning anonymous, pseudonymous registration, as particularly damaging overseas challenging dictatorships, criminal cartels

2011-10-04T20:37:00.000-07:00

Eva Galperin has a detailed story Oct 3 on the Electronic Frontier Foundation site about the serious potential ramifications overseas of strict “true identity” policies enforced by some social networking sites, especially Facebook and now Google Plus.

Although these sites do not mechanically prevent pseudonyms from being used, they will suspend (sometimes with little warning) users reported by others to not be using real names, according to the EFF story. These would invite political or criminal enemies of social network users to “report” users to shut them down.

It is true that in western countries, governments have been concerned that anonymous use of social networking (and perhaps blogging) sites facilitates cyberbullying, identity theft, and possible enablement of vandalizing flash mobs, and perhaps “stegonographic” use by potential terrorists. From a purely public policy approach, this can be a tough problem. Facebook, particularly, has sided with US and British governments in these concerns and has said that use of multiple identities or anonymous identity demonstrates lack of “integrity”. On the other hand, the ACLU has vigorously defended a fundamental right to public anonymous speech.

EFF also encourages overseas users to become skilled in TOR and use encryption (https). Without the use of these technologies and also the use of anonymity or pseudonymity, the “Arab spring” revolutions might well not have happened. Social networking site policies could have a big effect on the success of these populist uprisings.

It’s also true that western countries (especially Britain) have long recognized writing books -- especially novels – under pseudonyms or pen names, as legitimate. How should social networking sites handle this kind of use? It’s also true that many writers or artists derive “stage” names from nicknames given to them.

EFF points out that organized crime (like drug cartels in Mexico or Latin America or mafia-like groups in countries like Russia) also goes after blogger who write about their activities under their “legitimate” identities, again a problem for social networking site identity policies. The EFF story is quite graphic on this point.

It would seem that social networking companies, especially Facebook and Google+, should consider very carefully how they want to deploy "identification" policies for overseas use, because there can be enormous consequences overseas for some users to use their true identities. This could amount to a major strategic decision for any such social networking or publishing-service company planning to expand overseas (and eventually be able to work effectively in China) -- to "rule the world" with a kind of "techocracy". Possibly companies need to consider different policies in some countries overseas (as compared to policies for use within "democracies"). Such companies ought to meet (maybe again) with the Administration and State Department on the matter (as well as with similar aspects of British and other western governments) in a little "parlor diplomacy". Keep in mind, too, that Americans (or any westerners) traveling in non-democratic countries could get in trouble for Facebook (or similar use, including Blogger or Wordpress, Twitter, etc) use when tracked to them, even possibly for use done at home before they entered potentially "hostile" religious or otherwise non-democratic countries. I wonder if this issue could exist for American bloggers thinking about visiting China even now (that includes me).

The link for detailed the EFF story is here.

Yes, we all learn our lessons from the Knox case. "All's well that end's well?" Not quite

2011-10-03T20:49:00.000-07:00

I guess the Amanda Know re-verdict will be followed by years of lectures on how Americans must behave overseas.

In this case, the prosecutor seemed caught in his own trap, having to rationalize a course he had gone down for political reasons. But that happens here in the US (as in the little film “Incendiary”, which I saw today).

There was no DNA evidence, and yet Knox’s behavior is said to be odd, inappropriate. A lesson, to be careful when you’re a guest in another country.

Timothy Egan has a perspective in the New York Times here (the column is called "Opinionator"!)

If the prosecution wins on appeal, extradition has practically zero chance of happening, according to Dan Abrams of ABC (but she can never set foot in Italy, or event the EU). The judge also recognized a three year sentence for "slander", shocking that this would be a crime in the US (given all our carelessness about "online reputation").

Don't forget: it was Italy that tried to hold YouTube responsible with "downstream liability" (civil) in defamation cases that result in eventual injury.

Here’s AC360’s coverage.

CIA strike in Yemen raises questions about due process, but also about Web speech

2011-10-01T11:46:00.000-07:00

CNN interviews Leon Panetta in a discussion as to whether the CIA drone strike against Anwar al-Awlaki when “out in the open” in Yemen was a legal “evasion” of the normal need to exercise due process against American citizens overseas, here.

But the most relevant issue may be the way the “target” had used the Internet (in English) to “win converts” to his extremist ideology. The upshot could be further government monitoring of the way “amateurs” propagate ideas on the Web – but that concern was expressed right after 9/11.

CNN is also reporting the capture of a Haqqani Network leader in Afghanistan, story here.

People tell me that "Greece is dead", like Hollywood (in Buble's song).

2011-09-28T08:58:00.000-07:00

The New York Times ran a story about the extreme hardships in Greece with the new property taxes, delayed or even rescinded or at least reduced public employee salaries, all presumably to retain the integrity of the global “capitalist” system. There are many perspectives, such as this.

Financial planners tell me that Greece is gone. A default is expected. The Left will demand repudiation.

But the underlying problem is partly demographic. Governments cannot forever expand their welfare states without new workers to pay for people who are retired longer and expect infinite medical care. The same thing will happen here.

Media reports appear again on HTLV-1 in developing world, a cancer-causing retrovirus distantly related to HIV

2011-09-27T16:58:00.000-07:00

In the last few days, there have appeared some scattered media reports about the HTLV-I (or HTLV-1) virus, which is a retrovirus distantly related to HIV, which causes AIDS. Remember that in the 1980s HIV was called HTLV-III for a time.

The virus causes nervous system damage and sometime causes lymphomas or leukemias of the T-cells. These had been documented in the developing world (especially Japan, in the aborigine sections of Australia, in Peru and Andean areas, and the Caribbean) in the early 80s before HIV was discovered. The disease seems to put the immune system into temporary overdrive, leading to autoimmunity and then eventual immune dysfunction, leading to some of the same opportunistic infections seen in AIDS.

The disease seems to be spread by blood contact, much like HIV, with emphasis on mother to child, needles, and sexual contact, usually heterosexual.

What would be interesting to wonder is if the rampant HIV epidemic in Africa could be partly related to this virus, too. Also, would similar medications (protease inhibitors) work?

The only really recent article that turned up in the search engines was on Wise Geek, here. (MSN-Bing showed this reference.)

Fattal and Bauer slam Iran's motives in first public appearance in US

2011-09-26T07:10:00.000-07:00

Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer spoke on CNN from a location near JFK airport in New York yesterday.

They insisted they were held for only one reason: they were Americans, and Iran wanted to use them as hostage in carrying out their political battles with the United States.

They also say that, ironically, both of them opposed US policy in the Middle East.

They still insist that they never crossed the border into Iran, or that if they did, they have no idea where.

Their first appearance in the United States is well worth watching.

Saudi Arabia to allow women to vote, hold office, and more

2011-09-25T16:28:00.000-07:00

The changes in Saudi Arabia certainly sound worthy of note. Women will get to vote and run for office. Saudi Arabia will hold its first election in a half century.

CNN’s link is here.

Is this a sensible reaction to the Arab Spring, to keep a grip on things?

(I didn’t think Facebook was available in Saudi Arabia, but my doaskdotell.com site has always had some hits.)

In the tribalistic Arab and Muslim (not necessarily synonymous) culture, the dependency of women (including the modesty of the veil and even not driving a car, although the latter is not specifically forbidden by law) has been an important part of “heterosexual culture”. It wouldn’t make sense to me. It won't be easy for some men to adjust to.

I wonder if a "self-promoted" person (via Internet) from the West could safely travel in Saudi Arabia. Does anyone know? It would be like going to another planet.

Note (Sept. 27): today there were media reports of an arrest of a female in Saudi Arabia for driving anyway.

American hikers freed by Iran, finally

2011-09-21T09:02:00.000-07:00

Hikers Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal have finally been released from Iran, and are on their way to Oman. At least, that is what Iran has announced. The young men had been imprisoned in Iran for two years. $1 million in bail was paid.

CNN has a live blog with continuous coverage, here.

The media has had to be careful about covering the delays in their release, out of fear of causing even more issues.

The hikers had been walking, they though, in Iraq, and say they were lured a few feet over the border.

The whole incident underlies the risks that Americans take on when traveling in countries that are hostile to the west, or even in friendlier countries with different judicial systems (as with Amanda Knox).

Charities could be formed to raise bail for other Americans caught in such circusmtances.

I have been thinking of visiting Finland and then St. Petersburg and Moscow, but I know I have to think carefully about Russia. Could American bloggers be in trouble if picked up in countries hostile to western freedom of speech?

Italian court takes child away from couple that is "too old"; filial piety mentiond

2011-09-17T07:30:00.000-07:00

There is a case in Italy where a married couple, 70 and 57, had a child by insemination; but a judge took the child away from them and placed it in social services. The judge claimed the couple was selfish and narcissistic, and may have intended to have a child to be indentured to care for them when they got old. This sounds bizarre, since European countries generally don’t have filial responsibility laws, given their welfare states

Still, the story sounds like a distant reflection of the “demographic winter” problem in Europe and especially Italy.

The London Telegraph has the story, by Nick Squires, here.

Wikipedia attribution link for Leaning Tower of Pisa.

ABC News reports on specific danger reported by FBI (developing story)

2011-09-08T16:52:00.000-07:00

ABC News reported, right after president Obama’s speech, that the FBI is watching three individuals who entered the country in mid August and have reportedly rented a truck or vehicle, which may not have GPS. I’ll put the link as soon as it’s here.

The obvious concern would be disruption of 9/11 commemorations in New York and Washington. The NFL has teams from both cities playing on that day in Washington.

Various theories about unconventional weapons have been discussed on this blog before based on research and various lesser known media reports.

Here's the ABC News story just in, by Brian Ross and others, link.

Here is an interview on AC360:

At 9:40 PM, CNN started airing a live broadcast of a press conference at a police task force in New York City.

The Huffington Post has a story Friday morning with more details this morning, about what the FBI sees as the danger.

Libya's future on the balance as Gadhafi melts away, like a lesion

2011-09-02T07:41:00.000-07:00

It looks like Gadhafi is going down in slow motion, with radio broadcast whimpers coming out from desert hideouts, and there is no Sunday night announcement. Instead, the Washington Post reports that the U.S. should become grateful, because the rebels’ new military commander in Tripoli, Abdel Hakim Bekhaj, promises that the new revolutionary government will not support Al Qaeda or other forms of radical Islamist extremism. The Washington Post reprinted the AP story here.

It isn’t clear that there is much of any kind of government there at all, just control by force. It remains to be seen if the Arab Spring here moves into a legitimate summer, or just an oven. Hope for the best. Obama needs for this to turn out well.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

North Korea may be starting cyberwarfare against South Korea

2011-08-30T21:03:00.000-07:00

Chico Harlan and Ellen Nakashima have a bizarre story in the Aug. 30 Washington Post about an apparent cyber attack against a South Korean bank by hackers from North Korea, where very few citizens have access to the Internet. Here is the link.

It seems very strange, but North Korea might have a lot to “gain” from such a venture. I’ll watch as a potential Internet security issue more broadly in the future.

China has a "license to publish" concept

2011-08-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

On Aug. 26, the Washington Post ran a “China Watch” section with a report by Jiang Xueqing writing, “Turning the page, Newspapers and magazines enter a challenging era”. What’s interesting is this process in China of quasi “privatization” of news services into “enterprises”, but the requirement of “licenses to publish” (a medieval concept) associated with required “serial numbers”. China apparently regards having the capability to release information “into the wild” for “everyone” (or the “public”) as a privilege that should be regulated. No free entry!

Britain meets with social media companies on flash mob problem

2011-08-25T20:49:00.000-07:00

According to a New York Times story by Ravi Somaiya (link), British officials met with executives of Twitter, Facebook, and RIM (Blackberry) to discuss ways of limiting the use of social media to organize destructive flash mobs. Twitter is now considering the use of real names (or at least valid nicknames), a practice already controversial with Facebook and Google-Plus. Many Twitter users make up cute handle names almost as personal "trademarks", and these are not deceptive.

Britain will have to walk a tightrope to distinguish itself from authoritarian Middle Eastern governments that tried to restrict social media and Internet access during the Arab Spring, a development partly credited to social media.

Social media users have not always been held to the same standards of conduct in obeying court orders as traditional media.

Saturday, CNN reported that Britain would not take any specific measures now.

Gadhafi will probably fall tonight, giving Obama another Sunday night surprise to announce

2011-08-21T16:46:00.000-07:00

Is Muammar Gadhafi about to capitulate? Will he be gone in the next few hours? Will this be a Sunday night triumph for Obama (like Osama bin Laden on May 1)? He needs it, while on “les vacances” in the Vineyard (that’s not “The Island”). I see the Libyan dictator’s last name spelled every conceivable way.

The news is breaking so fast, about the capture of the sons, and the advances into Tripoli, the naming of “Martyr Square”, that viewers will just have to stay tuned to breaking news. Here’s Time Magazines speculations, link.

It does look as though Gadhafi will be evicted from power before the stock market opens tomorrow.

The world will have to learn the difference between legitimate revolution and flash mobs, as both can be accelerated by social media. You know it when you see it.

And perhaps this is a Sunday for "feeling reckless" (actually, Saturday night was, as there was a small incident at the bar). There are people who know what this means.

Iran sentences two hikers who "wandered" over border to 8 years in prison

2011-08-20T17:14:00.000-07:00

Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal were sentenced to eight years in prison in Iran, as a result of their arrest when they “wandered” into Iran when hiking in northern Iraq. The young men say that they were tricked into crossing intentionally by Iranian guards.

Of course, this episode serves as a warning to Americans travelling in unstable or non-western countries, or countries with regimes hostile to “western values”. But attorneys act hopeful about the possibility of an appeal.

Zakaria: The US should switch to a parliamentary form of government, like Britain's

2011-08-19T17:39:00.000-07:00

Today, on CNN, Fareed Zakaria made a pitch to Ali Velshi (CNN business and finance editor) to the effect that the United States should seriously consider switching to a parliamentary form of government, like Britain. It would then have a prime minister, who controls both the legislature and executive, and guarantees that a government can actually function (even on a matter like deficit reduction, which Britain has been doing heavily).

So where do we start with this one, with another constitutional convention? (A proofreader once caught me with "constitutional conventional".)

Here is Zakaria's blog posting on the matter. Zakaria points out that no country with a "presidential system" (compared with parliamentary -- counting France which has both) has a AAA rating from S&P on its sovereign debt.

Fareed Zakaria: The US and China have a pact of mutually assured financial destruction

2011-08-15T07:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Fareed Zakaria, on his Global Public Square (GPS) program on CNN, said that China, despite complaints about American debt, is not likely to stop lending us money, as Tea Party conservatives have warned. He says that the US and China have a deal of the financial equivalent of the Cold War, of “mutually assured financial destruction”, as explained in China Digital Times here.

China owns about 1.2 trillion dollars of the 14.3 trillion federal debt. But most federal debt is owned by Americans in the Social Security trust fund, pension trusts (public and private employers), and the Federal Reserve.

China holds dissident for filing lawsuit in US against Cisco involving abetting Chinese surveillance

2011-08-10T20:34:00.000-07:00

Electronic Frontier Foundation has an important story about China’s detention of Du Daobin for bringing a lawsuit against Cisco in the U.S. for selling China tools to use against dissidents, including surveillance and blocking tools.

The link for the advisory is here.

Daobin was also arrested for his pro-democracy blogging activities.

There have been several notorious cases of Chinese detention of Internet dissidents in the past year.

Social media, while helping Arab spring, may not be instigating lawlessness in England, elsewhere

2011-08-09T04:41:00.000-07:00

While social media, especially Facebook and Twitter, takes some moral credit for helping instigate the “Arab Spring”, with mixed results, now these media are “implicated” in the outbreak of rioting in several areas of London and three other cities in Britain, and even Philadelphia in the US, supposedly a reaction to so-called “police brutality”. The term used to characterize this activity is "flash mob", although the term is also used for gatherings that do not have destructive intentions (wiki link).

I could say we saw this attitude in the 60s (Detroit, Newark, and then “medium cool” Chicago in 1968). And I personally can remember the indignation of a lot of people those days during my own coming of age, mostly from the far Left in those days. At least on the surface, this also calls to mind the Rodney King incident in LA in 1991.

Is this criminality, or is it something that inevitably results from the gap between rich and poor, and the cutbacks, and hyper-competitiveness? One could sound like (ultra-Leftist) Noam Chomsky about this one. The “decadent” public is caught in the middle, but it gets caught on a lot of disputes, like strikes, anyway.

The media have reported some of the teens in the streets as saying "we have the power", etc. Left-wing site AlterNet has an account "Elites are 'shocked' the poor are rising up against brutal austerity measures; angyr young people with nothing to do and nothing do lose are turning on their own communities, and they cannot be stopped, and they know it", story by Penny Red (pun), link here. Is this what Marxists called "class warfare" during my own generation? Chairman Mao would turn over in his grave with glee.

The Washington Post, usually "liberal", has a more moderate track on a front page story by Anthony Faiola, "Riot-battered London asks itself why", link here. While describing the lockdown of parts of London and maybe other cities in England, he characterizes the rage as "blind, apolitical and profoundly selfish" and later quotes mention of "bad parenting." The Washington Post editorial this Wednesday morning took a middle of the road tack, talking about how democracies respond to the "rebellion by the dispossessed". And Britain rebuked the Syrian ambassador for its (false) metaphor comparing the lawlessness in Britain with the uprisings in the Middle East.

Wikipedia attribution link for picture below:

Update: Aug. 16

Here's a Washington Times editorial on the problem. Theodore Dalrymple aka Anthony Daniels, invoking memories of Butterworth's "A Shropshire Lad", razes the sense of entitlement in Britain with a piece in the Wall Street Journal Aug 16, "The Barbarians inside Britain's gates", link here. Other columnists of the WSJ have expressed similar interpretations.

British courts have sentenced a few young adults to up to four years in prison for using Facebook to organize the destructive flash mobs, and many more have been sentenced to a humiliating kind of "community service", cleaning up the mess in riot-torn areas while wearing orange jumpers.

CNN hints international credit freeze (quasi 2008) coming, emergency meetings tonight

2011-08-08T14:08:00.000-07:00

Is another credit freeze looming? That’s what CNN suggested this afternoon after Wall Street laid its egg today at the end of the session.

Richard Quest confirmed these comments this afternoon, despite the fact that the yield on US Treasuries dropped even in the wake of the downgrade.

It’s not clear if this is the same concern as in 2008, when there was a fear that the global financial system would simply “seize”. But cash “hoarding” could lead to an international freeze, some says, such as this blog by Eric Dixon. This is the sort of argument one used to hear decades ago from the political Left.

Investors could watch the “Ted Spread” (link) and LIBOR. That would have gone up today if the T-bill interest went down. LIBOR, or the London Interbank Rate, is said to have risen slightly today (link )

Yet CNN speculates on high-level international finance meetings taking place this evening.

Much of the drop in the Dow occurred at the end of the day, some time after S&P announced additional downgrades and Obama gave his speech.

I conducted some minor business at a Wells Fargo branch recently converted from Wachovia, and the bank conveniently did not display stock market numbers on its jumbotron.

Let’s see what the pundits say tonight on CNBC, CNN, etc.

Save the Children makes appeal in Somalia famine crisis, which has political complications

2011-08-02T06:51:00.000-07:00

The Washington Post, in a story by Mary Beth Sheridan, is reporting that the United States government has to walk a tightrope in funneling aid to victims of the Somalia drought-related famine, to prevent assistance from being controlled through Al Qaeda-related al-Shabab, which collects “taxes” or “tribute”, in a manner that reminds one of early Middle Ages feudalism.

The link is here.

The current AP story about pressure from the UN for more money is (website url) here and it is reproduced this morning in most newspapers.

Save the Children has a link for its own campaign here.

Wikipedia attribution link for Ciismanyia alphabet.

Here is a YouTube video on the emergency drops from STC:

Refugees are spreading into Kenya, waiting in huge crowds for aid.

Norway: appears now to be a local extremist, not radical Islam

2011-07-23T04:41:00.000-07:00

The events in Norway are horrific, but they do not appear right now to be related to Islamic extremism. They appear more to be someone locally disgruntled, a kind of McVeigh. But the reports are still vague, and the picture could change quickly.

I visited Norway for a week in the summer of 1972. I stayed with some people I knew from the church that I grew up in. I then went to Bergen, flew to Trondheim, took the train and bus up to Narvik, and another train across to Kiruna in Sweden and back down to Stockholm. We had a heat wave that week.

Update: July 24

I guess the word "manifesto" will have a bad reputation again, since Anders Breivik had posted a 1500 page manifesto on the web, with Reuters describing it here. The resurrection of the Knights Templar is curious an. (movie review of "The Last Templar" on movies blog, Jan. 26, 2009, as well as Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code").

Al Qaeda reported placing saboteurs inside US utilities, as it is "easy" to pass background checks

2011-07-21T07:21:00.000-07:00

ABC's Brian Ross reports that Al Qaeda is trying to gain "insider access" to various electric grid or oil and gas infrastructures in order to inflict damage. Richard Clark says that many can pass background checks to get jobs in the United States where they could inflict sabotage (as in Alfred Hitchcock's famous film "Saboteur"). Some have already been "hired".

Some have been recruited through an extremist site called "Inspire", as described on this website called "Public Intelligence" here.

Something else about this disturbs: One of my own concerns is the use of social media and blogs for "background checks" for employment because, not only of "free speech" issues, but because of the likelihood that much information is wrong or planted by hostile third parties, or people could be misidentified. This issue really begs the question of social media BI's.

Libyan rebels gain recognition; wait for funds

2011-07-16T08:18:00.000-07:00

The United States andUnited Nations have recognized the rebel government, or Libyan Transitional National Council, as the sovereign entity for Libya. The Bloomberg story, by Nicole Gaouette and Flavika Kruase-Jackson, is here.

There are apparently some technical steps in releasing some of the Gadhafy' funds to the group.

Gadhafy remains held up in Tripoli. But it seems as if Libya will resolve with a whimper before a bang, and no sudden Sunday night announcement after some “recklessness”. Howevr, Gadhafy still remains to be fully evicted from power.

Hello, South Sudan!

2011-07-09T05:36:00.000-07:00

There is a new country, South Sudan, just recognized by the U.S. Voice of America has the story on its independence here. Population, 8 million. It will have ten states and a capital of Juba. It is the 54^th country in Africa.

I’m not sure how this relates to the struggles over the people of Darfur, the subject of several independent films recently.

A story about President Obama’s recognition today of the country is on AFP here.

ABC’s story is here.

Release of Chinese artist on bail again points to China's Internet censorship

2011-07-06T07:29:00.000-07:00

Chinese artist Al Weiwei and social critic has been “freed”, but completely silenced, to the point that the Chinese are trying to censor any mention or metaphoric allusion (“The Fat Guy”) on the Internet.

Weiwei was arrested in April trying to go to Hong Kong but never formally charged.

Visitors may enjoy this account of a recent exhibit in New York, “The Travelogue of Dr. Brain Damages”, by Kenneth Hung, on blogger, here with some explanations of the metaphors for Chinese Internet censorship, “Fa Ke You” or “River Crab”.

Visitors might want to ponder the list of major websites banned in the People’s Republic of China (or the People’s Republic of Capitalism, as Ted Koppel calls it), on Wikipedia, here. That would include this blog.

And they say Mark Zuckerberg studies Chinese.

Reader's comment on Hamas, Gaza, and Israel

2011-06-26T12:59:00.000-07:00

I got an email from someone ("David Harris") urging that I post a certain message regarding Hamas. I generally don’t post entire stories by others (the speaker’s intention as to copyright wasn’t entirely clear) but here is the web reference that he wants everyone to see about Hamas, link. I believe that this is the "David Harris Blog".

He says that the Huffington Post turned his article down as “not for us”. Here is his conclusion:

“So, let's be clear. The flotilla participants, whether they acknowledge it or not, are handmaidens of a terrorist regime. That regime, not Israel, is responsible for the conditions in Gaza, which may not be enviable, but are a far cry from the dire picture of starvation and stunted growth painted by the hyperbolic spokesmen.

“Israel has only one concern, which is to ensure that Hamas, a declared enemy of Israel, does not get additional means to threaten its neighbor. That's it, pure and simple.

“As has been said, if Hamas laid down its weapons, there would be peace. If Israel laid down its weapons, there would be no Israel.

“The flotilla participants claim their mission is nothing more than humanitarian, but, in reality, it serves the interests of a regime that espouses terrorism, peddles anti-Semitism, and praises the memory of Osama Bin Laden. “

CNN presents "Online Warrios of the Arab Spring", where as Ben Stein and Mark Z play devil's advocate

2011-06-19T19:03:00.000-07:00

“iRevolution: The Online Warriors of the Arab Spring” aired on CNN (as part of its “Presents” series) June 19, and explored the role that the Internet, especially citizen journalism and blogging, took in the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, and Bahrain. Was the “Arab spring” the “Facebook Revolution”? Or would it have happened anyway? Look back into history, particularly the collapse of communist regimes that occurred before the Internet.

CNN’s text article (with many videos) adds Syria, Yemen and, of course, Libya to the mix.

The fact that governments need to suppress speech by imprisoning bloggers or turning off Internet access (as in Egypt) would, by all common sense, give away their illegitimacy.

Will the Internet eventually undermine what appears to westerners the authoritarian nature of Islam? It’s always been a contradiction that, while the doctrine that law and religion are inseparable sounds authoritarian, actual control of the faith is, compared to other religions, quite decentralized.

Ben Stein, however, doesn’t trust the “Arab Spring”. Hear his remarks on YouTube on CBS (not embeddable), link.

Zuckerberg, in this video from Reuters, says (starting at 1:36) that it would be arrogant for a technology company to claim credit for an international revolution like this. It took the people for it to happen.

After all, it's possible to say that some of the Arab Spring was instigated by WikiLeaks, too. Assange is another "ruler of the world," and more arrogant.

Remember, President Obama had met with Zuckerberg, as well as chiefs from Google and Apple (but not Microsoft) shortly after the "Arab Spring" started.

Greek default now previews our own debt ceiling defaults in August

2011-06-16T17:00:00.000-07:00

ABC News World News Tonight, with reporter Jake Tapper, reported “in plain English” on how a default by Greece, which is already happening, could affect the US economy and security markets.

American banks are indirectly exposed to the risk of Greek bond defaults because of their labyrinthine relationships with European banks. Furthermore, a full default by Greece could be followed by other countries (Portugal, Ireland, maybe Spain). American banks would have to raise mortgage and other interest rates quickly, and more US layoffs could occur because of European problems, stalling the recovery further.

It’s ironic to hear discussion of the effect of the Greek default now six weeks before “GOP to Country: drop dead” on our own debt ceiling. ABC news also has a video on the Treasury’s “auction room”.

Greece is facing riots because of the draconian nature of its cuts, including those of salaries of government workers. Comparable cuts in the US would affect social security and Medicare beneficiaries now.

Michael Murray provides the reports.

ACLU warns supporters about Worldwide War provision of National Defense Authorization Act

2011-06-14T10:55:00.000-07:00

The ACLU called me this morning, from phone number “000-000-0000”, about legislation in the Senate, as part of the National Defense Authorization Act, authorizing the president to send troops to war wherever there is a terrorism suspect. The bill was called “Worldwide War Authorization”. It does not have an S number yet. (The cell phone call had been tried several times before it would connect, since Monday. The caller started by saying that this was not a request for a donation but a specific request to call a senator.)

The ACLU’s link for contacting senators about the bill (to oppose it) is (website url) here.

There is a somewhat hysterical Wordpress blog posting claiming that Obama’s promise to veto a bill giving him dictatorial powers over war (website url) here.

Ron Paul (R-TX) speaks about the matter in May 2011.

I guess Bob Woodward is right about “Obama’s War”. See my books blog Oct. 10, 2010.

(I generally contact members of Congress only when I have some detailed analysis to offer, not usually just to support or oppose specific bills, because there are so many of them.)

The Syrian affair: could anonymous speakers make things more dangerous for real people?

2011-06-13T20:19:00.000-07:00

More stories appear about the fictitious “gay blogger” from Syria, “Amina Arraf”, who turns out to be a straight man from Georgia, shortly after reporting that “she” had been hauled away by Syrian authorities, ending a blog that had gone on for some years as like an installment novel, maybe a movie.

Monica Hesse as a summary commentary on the Washington Post this evening here.

Do anonymous speakers playing games could put real people in danger overseas? Or did straight man Tom MacMaster also has raised the ante for authoritarian governments? Just why do they fear dissent from people whom they pronounce as weak and inconsequential? Their own oppression just proves their points.

As a blowback, another imposter blogger has been “exposed” as the editor of Lez Get Real is a heterosexual man from Ohio.

Anonymity is still a major component of the asymmetry on the web.

France bans mention ofo Facebook and Twitter on TV

2011-06-06T04:03:00.000-07:00

The media report this morning that France has banned television stations from promoting themselves on Facebook and Twitter, or apparently any companies from doing so when advertising on broadcast networks. The government wants companies to give ailing smaller networks a chance!

Is this for real?

Saudi's want lower oil prices to keep US dependent, but speculators still fear unrest threat

2011-05-30T07:45:00.000-07:00

Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal told Fareed Zakaria Sunday on Fareed’s Global Public Square program that Saudi Arabia wants oil prices to drop a bit so that the US remains dependent on Saudi oil welfare.

On the other hand, the fear of possible instability even in Saudi Arabia, despite denials, could lead speculators to drive up the price of oil further, so that gasoline averages $5 a gallon by mid July, CNN said this morning, Memorial Day. And speculation by Wall Street on commodities is still entirely legal.

Neil MacFarquhar has a major article about containing unrest in Saudi Arabia in the New York Times May 27, with an impressive picture from a skyscraper of downtown Riyadh – sort of like a city on another planet, link here.

Authoritarian Middle Eastern governments harass individual protestors in cyberspace

2011-05-24T14:30:00.000-07:00

Much as had been reported earlier with a few countries, especially Egypt, now authoritarian regimes in the Middle East are using the Internet to strike back at protestors, sometimes hacking their accounts with spyware, and sometimes smearing their reputations online and urging them to be targeted, according to a Washington Post story Sunday by Mary Beth Sheridan, “Autocratic regimes fight web-savvy opponents with their own tools”, link here.

Whereas Facebook and Twitter have been credited as helping launch the Arab spring, there’s some blowback in that regimes have been using the same tools.

There is increasing debate, also, on the authority under international law to apprehend dictators like Gadhafy who commit crimes against their own people (could this discussion have applied to Saddam Hussein?) Reuters and MSNBC had a typical story, here. Could cyberterror figure into international law this way? In any case, any day now there could be another sudden announcement from the White House, this time on Gadhafy's end, I suspect.

Indonesia, other embassies, hold public open houses today in Washington

2011-05-14T14:34:00.000-07:00

A number of embassies in Washington DC held open houses today (Saturday, May 14), and the most conspicuous was the “party” at the Embassy of Indonesia, on Massachusetts Ave., just NW of Dupont Circle. The line was about a block long in the afternoon but moved quickly.

The most interesting part of the brief tour was the concert of angklung players; the public was allowed to try this instrument made from bamboo tubes. There was a kind of class "music lesson" in playing individual notes on a scale on the instrument (below).

There was an “office” roped off, with no photography of it allowed, and yet there was absolutely nothing sensitive visible in it.

The “living” room also had a piano and an unusual pipe organ, and a plasma TV with movies of Indonesia. There is also a “grand hall” at the entrance.

I set foot inside the sovereign territory of another embassy in April, that is, France, for a FilmFestDC showing.

A field trip to Embassy Row(s)

2011-05-09T13:33:00.000-07:00

Today, I made a little field trip to Embassy Row in NW Washington, near the UDC, off Van Ness Street, where the old National Bureau of Standards was located in 1963 for my first paid job.

International Avenue is bifurcated by Van Ness.

The Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan faces back onto it immediately north, behind the UDC. If you walk up the street, in a dead-end loop, you pass the back of the Nigerian embassy;

then you encounter the Arab Republic of Egypt, then the United Arab Emirates, and then come back and see the front of Nigeria and Pakistan, as well as Malaysia. Across Van Ness, the really big embassy is, of course,

China; as I walked on the North side, the automatic gate opened (I don’t think it was supposed to); I went on, and overheard a protest being broadcast through a bull horn from the Ethiopian embassy. There is a high hill (closed to the highest point in DC, a little under 500 feet), with a Greek statute on it, and a view of the company Intelsat. The embassy of Singapore is also nearby.

I then rode down to the Dupont Circle Metro, with a long stop at Cleveland Park, when a woman running the Metro Red Line train announced she was getting off. We waited ten minutes without further explanation.

From Dupont Circle, I walked up to S Street, across Florida Ave., and toward the Woodrow Wilson Museum. I encountered a protestor across the street from the Myanmar (Burma) embassy.

I also saw the Ireland Embassy residence, with its harp drawing.

I finally came to the address of concern. What I had once reported as the “Embassy of Pakistan” on S Street is a residence belonging to the embassy (it is far too small to be the entire embassy of a major country). It may in fact not be sovereign territory, but be ordinary residential property belonging to the country to house it diplomats. Many embassies maintain residences at other locations in DC.

Next to it is the embassy of Mauritania, a much less populous country. Matt Damon’s documentary “Running the Sahara” goes through this country (after starting in Senegal), my movies blog, Nov. 23, 2010.

Here is a quick clip of the "protest" at the Ethiopian embassy:

Update: May 11

The Washington Blade reports on a demonstration Tuesday at the Uganda Embassy, on N 16th Street (not in the areas I visited), over draconian anti-gay legislation, here.

DOD releases images of OBL and his compound on Saturday afternoon

2011-05-07T11:40:00.000-07:00

The Department of Defense is releasing some “silent video” of the “home” where Osama bin Laden lived, including some pictures of Bin Laden watching himself on television. That sounds like a familiar experience, doesn’t it. He looks like a "crumpled old man", rather than the boogeyman of genre horror films.

There is some video of an OBL speech, but you have to read lips to understand it. The administration does not want to “distribute”. In that speech, his beard seems to be dyed black. CNN commentators (and perhaps military officers here) were calling this vain or "feminine" behavior. So much for The Polarities!

Of course, all of this suggests that OBL (or UBL) was continuing to conduct the Al Qaeda “network”, which has admitted that indeed he was killed in the raid shortly after midnight Sunday Pakastani time.

About fifty reporters (including Barbara Starr from CNN) from the “establishment press” were invited to the Pentagon to see the images for the first time. I was not among that list. But the public was allowed to see the video on television and on the Internet almost immediately.

And all this on a Saturday afternoon!

Osama bin Laden's death is confirmed by President (very shortly)

2011-05-01T19:50:00.000-07:00

President Obama will soon announce that the United States has confirmed the death of Osama bin Laden. Larry King on CNN: "Bin Laden is dead." It is believed that the body was found in the mountains in the border area of Afghanistan and Pakistan, but the president will confirm that. (LateOBL had been living without Internet or phone in a "McMansion" in an exurb [Abbottabad] of Islamabad; it's hard to believe Pakistan's government didn't "know".

Here is the URL for ABC's live feed.

DNA evidence has confirmed the identity of UBL.

Earlier today, Fareed Zakaria examined the instability in the Middle East and an expert said that Saudi Arabia, with its oil production, is still stable for now; but if it did not move toward constitutional monarchy (at least) within the next sixth months, there will be real trouble with Saudi oil production.

CNN says the President will address the nation shortly.

Update/Correction (May 7, 2010):

The Embassy of Pakistan is in the "Embassy Row" area of Washington DC (near Van Ness St), with this Wikipedia image link (Creative Commons).

The Embassy website (for The Islamic Republic of Pakistan) is this.

In January 2008, I had visited the Woodrow Wilson House near Dupont Circle and snapped another picture in the area which, according to signeage, appeared to have a connection to Pakistan.

I will revisit both addresses or places soon, and track down what this was (at least when I reported it in 2008) and update and report the correct information on all properties previously shown in this blog.

Washington Times columnist assesses radical Islam aims

2011-04-29T13:11:00.000-07:00

Jeffrey Kuhner (president of the Edmund Burke Institute for American Renewal , link) has a rather confrontational op-ed on p. B3 of the “Opinion” section in the Washington Times, April 29, link (with a title that might be problematic to repeat here).

He notes, about the threat from radical Islam, which seems unashamed to bully speakers, “western freedoms are therefore assaulted regularly by a more self-confident culture than hours: Burning Korans, publishing cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad, and now Muslim actresses posing nude – what we consider freedom of expression, many Muslims provide provocative and blasphemous.”

Peter Bergen and other journalists after 9-11 had credibly written than Osama bin Laden and others were most concerned about western “occupation” of their lands, not Western lifestyles. That assessment could at least be challenged. There’s one observation about “self-righteous” sexual and religious morality (whatever extremes it gets carried to in some cultures) that sounds like an inconvenient truth: men seem to be able to stay committed to “it” when they believe others have to, and when they believe that “righteousness”, when adhered to by everyone, gives an otherwise humdrum world meaning. Remember the writings of Sayyid Qutb. In his view, those who do not obey are to be brought low. This was a 2002 article by David Brooks in the Weekly Standard, which I found online at the University of Buffalo here in Brooks’s piece about the “bourgeiosieophobes”. I see I had mentioned this on Sept. 11, 2007 here.