George Ajjan has an amusing item on Why Iran’s President Ahmadinejad never wears a tie. Ajjan heard this from an unnamed Iranian friend:
Shortly after the revolution…the tie itself began being associated with “Western imperialism”, especially after Ayatollah Khomeini branded a large group of intellectuals (who were less religiously zealous than he would have Read More
If they weren’t real, many of Mark Bowden’s characters would seem like the creations of a lazy Hollywood scriptwriter crafting roles for Bruce Willis and Colin Farrell. He favors men who are gruff and hard-living, honorable but contemptuous of authority. In his fascinating, occasionally frustrating new book, Guests of the Ayatollah, Mr. Bowden describes Col. Read More
If they weren’t real, many of Mark Bowden’s characters would seem like the creations of a lazy Hollywood scriptwriter crafting roles for Bruce Willis and Colin Farrell. He favors men who are gruff and hard-living, honorable but contemptuous of authority. In his fascinating, occasionally frustrating new book, Guests of the Ayatollah, Mr. Bowden describes Read More
In his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush declared that “liberty is the future of every nation in the Middle East, because liberty is the right and hope of all humanity.” How is the hope of all humanity doing in the Middle East these days?
Palestinian voters showed their degree of devotion Read More
The wars of our minds end clean, with a last fight, a handshake if the foe is worthy and a tribunal if he is not-Grant and Lee at Appomattox, or the seedy collection of seeming bookies, con men and child molesters who were in fact the Nuremberg defendants. In either case, the work of battle Read More
The charm of Iowa and New Hampshire: Canadian air masses; black ice and small towns; armies of journalists, clubby and obtuse; projections that do not project, experts who do not know; and finally, the candidates and their campaigns, multimillion-dollar insta-corporations careening to destruction, or surviving for another shot at becoming the Most Powerful People in Read More
