Wednesday, December 8, 2010
I've taught my last class until August 30 of next year, and I'm very psyched. On Thursday I'm giving my finals, and after grading them I'm a free man for the next semester and summer.
The idea, of course, is to get a book done—we'll see how that works out. If I don't get it done, it'll be my own fault, since starting in January I'll be spending the next several months at the Kennan Institute, the "oldest program of the Woodrow Wilson Center."
It's a great opportunity, and I'm really looking forward to it. For this month, however, I'm staying here at the Lodge: there's too much snow taking place.
Anyway, people, here's the N & P:
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This seemed pretty cool:
Istanbul residents wondering what the next day’s weather will bring need
only to look toward their city’s historical Beyazıt Tower, which is
once again being lit up in different colors depending on the forecast.
I love gimmicky stuff like this in Turkey, like the Nostaljik Tramvay or putting lights on the bridges over the Bosphorus. The lights and the silly stuff are some of the things that I miss the most.
Where is my bedazzling gimmickry, people?!
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Bummer: Kyrgyz coalition breaks apart before first day in power...
In a setback for Kyrgyzstan’s experiment in parliamentary democracy, the
Central Asian nation’s governing coalition collapsed even before it
could formally take power. Now, the legislature remains rudderless, as
political leaders enter into a new round of negotiations to produce a
government...
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Shocker: Obama backs down re Israeli West Bank settlements! I can't believe it—this is so unlike him!
President Barack Obama has abandoned attempts to persuade Israel to slow
West Bank settlement activity, officials said Tuesday, dealing a major
blow to the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and one of the
president's top foreign policy initiatives.
I'm really starting to think Obama and Hillary should propose switching jobs in 2012. If this is the best he can do, then Hillary deserves a shot. Maybe the two of them could alternate, good-cop bad-cop style, for the next 14 years?
Colbert's got a great bit on Obama's weakness (re his Bush tax cut climb-down) :
Ann Arbor's own: Juan Cole sez Iran winning, Israel losing..
Iran is winning and Israel is losing. That is the startling conclusion
we reach if we consider how things have changed in the Middle East in
the two years since most of the WikiLeaks State Department cables about
Iran’s regional difficulties were written. Lebanon’s Sunni prime
minister, once a virulent critic, quietly made his pilgrimage to the
Iranian capital last week. Israeli hopes of separating Syria from Iran
have been dashed. Turkey, once a strong ally of Israel, is now seeking
better relations with Iran and with Lebanon’s Shiites.
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Surprise, surprise: apparently, the FBI's use of undercover operatives to entrap Muslims into agreeing to undertake acts of terrorism is leading to distrust between Muslim communities and law enforcement agencies.
In the case discussed in the article linked here, which took place in Irvine, FBI agents were using a convicted forger named Criag Monteilh pretending to be a Muslim named Farouk al-Aziz.
In the Irvine case, Monteilh's mission as an informant backfired.
Muslims were so alarmed by his talk of violent jihad that they obtained a
restraining order against him.
He had helped build a terrorism-related case against a mosque member,
but that also collapsed. The Justice Department recently took the
extraordinary step of dropping charges against the worshiper, who
Monteilh had caught on tape agreeing to blow up buildings, law
enforcement officials said. Prosecutors had portrayed the man as a dire
threat.
Apparently, even the FBI's crack Muslim impostor unit has experienced some setbacks
Meanwhile, the alleged Portland bomber's lawyer is claiming entrapment—an argument that is bolstered by the fact that FBI agents have no recording of their first meeting with Mohamed Mohamud.
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Bringing back the spirit of 2001: panicked servers, others, punish WikiLeaks without waiting for judicial process.
WikiLeaks has never been charged with a crime, let alone indicted for one or convicted of one. A consensus of legal experts agree
that prosecuting the organization or Julian Assange for any of its
leaks would be difficult in the extreme. Despite those facts, look at
just some of the punishment that has been doled out to them and what has
been threatened...
But overreacting to what has been presented as an immediate threat has worked out so well in recent years! How could anyone be against this?
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Attention, Montana residents: "secluded" unabomber land for sale.
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People, I hope you have enjoyed your N & P!
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