Random Observations on Some Recent Developments

Iran

Iran will never give up its nuclear program. To them, having nuclear capabilities and a few warheads and missiles on the side is meant tom inoculate them against foreign dabbling. Iranian officials believe that, unlike Saudi Arabia whose breakup will come largely due to mismanagement on part of the ruling establishment, the only way the Iranian establishment they could face serious domestic troubles will come as a result of clandestine activities supported by Western governments. Having nuclear weapons will prevent that possibility, so they think, even as American drones and intelligence operations are busy destabilizing Pakistan, which has long been a nuclear power.

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Notes on the Paris Attacks

Charlie Hebdo's new cover image. — Charlie Hebdo’s new cover image.

All so-called Abrahamic religions have an embedded element of disdain towards all other faith systems, one that has been clearly and unambiguously articulated in their various holy books as well as by a huge assortment of their favorite scholars and clerics, one that colors popular attitudes and feeds popular stereotypes, even among the self-declared secular segments, and inspires rejection, condescension and downright hate among a select few.

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ISIS Inc.: US official reveals how terror network makes its millions

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The more we learn about ISIS the more similar it gets to the Assad regime from the belief in its divine right to rule to the way it treats its opponents, including torture, kidnapping, beheading and stoning, and the way its makes money. Terrorists in Syria come in different guises, but their actions betray them all, at least to those of us who are unwilling to be willingly blind. Terror invites terror. You can ignore one set of atrocities, you endorse all.

The story of an old joke

Head of the Syrian National Coalition appears on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, September 29, 2014.

Now that our plight has become the butt of jokes on late night comedy shows in the United States and Europe, and a variety of “light” newspaper editorials, we can rest assured that our misery will not end any time soon, and that our aspirations for freedom will have to be consigned to the farthest of the backburners currently burning. Pardon me if I cannot bring myself to laugh. The pain of it all aside, the joke is simply too old and predictable.

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