Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
Even a benign (i.e., popular and bloodless) military coup is not only inherently inconsistent but also politically untenable in a democracy. After all, no matter the extent of Thaksin’s corruption (highlighted by an insider’s deal where he allegedly sold his family’s stake in a state telecommunications company to Singaporeans for $1.9 billion), constitutional provisions were… Read more.
China signed a landmark deal Wednesday to buy Russian natural gas worth about $400 billion, giving a boost to diplomatically isolated President Vladimir Putin and expanding Moscow’s ties with Asia. (The Associated Press, May 21, 2014) I’ve been forthright in pointing out foreboding analogies between what Hitler did in Europe during the late 1930s and… Read more.
Black male “supermodel” Tyson Beckford triggered a racial meme when he sounded off seven days ago on the fashion industry being dominated by White models: Out of all the industries I find … that fashion is very racist. This past season during Fashion Week, you might go to a show and it’s all White girls:… Read more.
Glen Greenwald was all over the media last week promoting the first of what he undoubtedly hopes will be many books mined from the NSA data Edward Snowden leaked to him. His book is titled No Place to Hide, but the irony seems lost on Greenwald that it is belied by the fact that Snowden… Read more.
I readily concede that you can be forgiven a little compassion fatigue. After all, mainstream and social media have been replete recently with heartrending stories about wildfires destroying homes in California, ethnic conflict causing death and starvation in South Sudan, religious conflict causing death and destruction in the Central African Republic, and simmering civil war… Read more.
America often boasts of being the oldest democracy, but India is the largest and most participatory. India demonstrated this in awe-inspiring fashion over the past five weeks as 550 million voters, representing 66.4 percent of the electorate, participated in a general election. By comparison, only 121 million voters participated in the 2012 U.S. general election,… Read more.
And the debt most students pick up along the way is the least of it. Read more.
As the following attests, I was in the vanguard of those deriding and criticizing the Norwegian Nobel Committee for awarding President Obama the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize: You’d be hard-pressed to find a more ardent and hopeful supporter of President Barack Obama than me. But I think this award is … well … a bit… Read more.
No doubt Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan thought he was doing the right thing today when he cleared his schedule and rushed to a coal mine in Western Turkey, where an explosion and fire had just killed 274 workers and trapped another 100 or so – all of whom are now feared dead. But it’s hardly… Read more.
The following excerpt – from “Checkmated on Crimea, Obama Plays for Rest of Ukraine,” March 7, 2014 – reflects the kind of criticism I’ve been leveling against John McCain for years for displaying a rash and bellicose temperament that is unbecoming of a U.S. senator, let alone a U.S. president: A number of you have… Read more.
