Category Archives: Essays

Today I was watching an interview with Republican hopeful, Mitt Romney, on the Meet the Press podcast. A significant portion of the first half of the interview was dedicated to Romney discussing his religious faith. This is understandable to the degree that he could potentially be the first Mormon president of the U.S., and nevertheless, I was incredibly embarrassed by the whole thing. I kept thinking about how I would justify this type of “political” interview in Europe. In Europe, politicians would simply not be professing their faith to the electorate, and with the exception of “God Save the Queen” would not constantly be talking about “in God we trust” and their faith. Politicians do need to go to church or talk about God to win elections. Probably talking about religion would make them lose. Continue reading →

Nice video, but I doubt their conclusion.

I have already expressed my views on what almost became a controversy in Spain with respect to Muslim girls sporting the veil at public schools. Now I just came across an article by Laila Lalami in The Nation, entitled “Beyond the Veil” on the prohibition of the veil in France. Laila Lalami is a Moroccan born writer who lives in the U.S. and writes in English. Although I have not read her novel (and therefore don’t have an opinion on her writing), I do often check out her blog to learn about the other novelists she features.

In any event, if you are interested in the politics of the veil, I do recommend you read her article.

I have just seen this op-ed piece entitled “Pentagon Cover Up: 15,000 or More U.S. Casualties in Iraq War“, and this CBS article, “Suicide Epidemic Among Veterans” that show some remarkably disconcerting numbers on the death rate by suicide of our veterans who return from the battle fields of Iraq. Should the government include these deaths as part of the costs of the war in Iraq?

Last week, a Spanish penal court finally gave its verdict in the “Mass Trial” of 28 criminal defendants accused of partaking, in greater or lesser part, in the March 11, 2004 train bombings in Madrid, Spain. The outcome of the verdict was that 22 of the 28 were found guilty.

Now, I am no criminal law or criminal procedure expert, but tyring 28 people in the same single criminal proceeding seems very unjust to me. Mass trials are not unheard of, as was the case with the Camden 28, but if I were a lawyer for any one of the 28 defendants, I would have certainly asked for a seperate trial. And if I were the judge in the case, I would certainly have made it very clear to the public that the trial was not about what happened on March 11, 2007, but about whether each defendant had committed the crimes they had been charged with. Continue reading →

First the American House of Representatives, against the wishes of President Bush and the urgrings of eight former secretaries of state, has decided to push for legislation calling the 1915 mass murders of Armenians a “Genocide”. This has gotten the Turks up in arms and ready to retaliate. The Turks have now passed legislation to allow its country’s military forces to enter into Iraq and attack Kurds.

In a post on the book The Bastard of Istanbul, I referenced the whole Turkey/Armenian Genocide controversy. And in a more recent post on the War in Iraq, I discussed Kurdish/Turkey tensions and their effect on U.S. policy in Iraq.

Genocide is a “hot word” for many reasons, and Turkey is in a “hot spot” for American interests. It was during the Balkans in the 1990s and is now with Iraq. Furthermore, there are hundreds of thousands of Armenian Americans lobbying for the Congress to act, and yet the Congress acting is contrary to the U.S.’s interests in the region. For a pretty good summary of the issues involved, check out this week’s The Economist article on the subject.

Amnesty International has just published a series of reports on the living conditions of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon since 1948. There is an argument that if Lebanon and other neigbhoring countries provide better conditions for the refugees, then Israel will ultimately benefit because the refugees will no longer need a home called Palestine to return to. Another recent Amnesty International story covers the predicament of Palestinian refugees in Iraq.

Unfortunately as things stand, the Palestinians really don’t have any friends or enemies to turn to. Here is the summary of the reports: Continue reading →