Archives for December 2008

The Iranian government has just closed down the popular Hamsarchat.net internet dating service, accusing it of “promoting prostitution.” The site advertised itself as a way to find a spouse. Actually, the Iranian government has closed down internet dating services on other occasions in the past. In 2003, security forces arrested 68 young Iranians for actually […]

President-elect Barack Obama told the Chicago Tribune, “I think we’ve got a unique opportunity to reboot America’s image around the world and also in the Muslim world in particular.” He pledged an “unrelenting” wish to “create a relationship of mutual respect and partnership in countries and with peoples of good will who want their citizens […]

The Pentagon’s acting Inspector General says that despite the foreseeable need for armored vehicles in Iraq that could withstand roadside bombs, and despite the increasingly obvious need for such vehicles as the guerrilla war unfolded, the Pentagon was slow to deploy such vehicles. The article does not mention the infamous exchange between Secretary of Defense […]

Pakistan confirmed the arrest in Pakistani Kashmir of Zaki ur Rahman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah, leaders of the Lashkar-i Tayiba accused by the Indian government of having masterminded the attack on Mumbai. Zarar Shah’s arrest is particularly interesting, since he is thought to be a liason to a network of retired officers of the Inter-Services […]

Homo sapiens sapiens did not have children with Neanderthals according to researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology who have been analyzing Neanderthal DNA. There has long been speculation on this issue. These findings, if true, show that contemporary human beings are all Africans who developed in Africa recently (100,000 years ago?). Such […]

Blagojevich (v.) To sell public office for a profit. (n.). Corruption of a particularly blatant and stupid sort. synonym Venality. President John Adams warned of blagojeviching in his inaugural address: “The existence of such a government as ours for any length of time is a full proof of a general dissemination of knowledge and virtue […]

Pakistani security forces made a sweep in Pakistani Kashmir, arresting two dozen members of front groups for Lashkar-e Tayiba. The offices of the Jama’at al-Da’wa were targeted and among those arrested was “top Lashkar commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.” The US is applauding the rumored strike by the Pakistani military.

The International Council on Security and Development has issued a new report alleging that the Taliban are now active in three quarters of Afghanistan, up from half the country a year ago. They say that three of four major roads in and out of the capital, Kabul, are now insecure. Their criterion is that there […]

Unidentified militants attacked a NATO forward storage center at the ring road (beltway) of the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Sunday morning. They destroyed some 150 trucks loaded with materiel and supplies, including humvees, intended for NATO troops in Afghanistan. Peshawar is the capital of one of four major Pakistani provinces, the North-West Frontier […]