Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – This is the second installment in a series on Sam Harris’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad book, “The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Religion” (Norton, 2005). Part 1 is here. On page 31, Harris says, “It is clear, however, that Muslims hate the West in […]
Did the Same Saudi Hackers who Trapped Khashoggi Target Amazon’s Bezos for Nude Photos?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ security team has alleged in The Daily Beast that Saudi Arabian intelligence hacked his phone and passed to the National Enquirer intimate photos that the married Bezos had sent to his lover, Lauren Sanchez. Although the Enquirer’s parent company, AMI, has alleged that it received the […]
Syrian Ambassador: Trump should give Israel the Carolinas, instead of Syria’s Golan
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Syria’s envoy to the United Nations, Bashar Jaafari, lambasted the Trump administration for recognizing the Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights. He said that if Trump wanted to give somebody else’s territory to Israel, it should be North and South Carolina. The United Nations Charter forbids the acquisition of territory […]
Israeli Snipers Kill 4, wound 207 as 40,000 Palestinians March Peacefully in Gaza for Right to Return
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – As an unprecedented 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza marched for the right to return, marking the one-year anniversary of the beginning of weekly such marches, Israeli snipers shot into the Gaza Strip, killing 4 youth and wounding at least 207. The Israeli army uses military-grade tear gas on the crowds, and […]
75% of Scotland’s Electricity Now Green; & All Cars Electric by 2032
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Scotland added another 6% of green energy in 2018, so that nearly 75% of its annual gross electricity consumption came from renewables, chiefly wind, solar and hydro. Scotland’s population is 5.4 million. The increase in green energy came mainly from new offshore wind. New offshore wind also allowed the UK […]
Why Muslim Survivors of N. Zealand Massacre can Forgive: Islam is about Compassion
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – I confess that I was weeping uncontrollably as I posted the videos and the AFP wire service story on the memorial service in Christchurch, New Zealand for the 50 shot dead in a horrific Islamophobic massacre. I’m a big Polynesia fan and the Maori music is so haunting and beautiful. […]
How Trump Just Gave Alabama to Iraq by Giving Syrian Golan to Israel
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Trump administration’s illegal and unilateral recognition of Israeli annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights is an unfortunate return to the international jungle of the 1930s and 1940s, when Hitler annexed the Sudetenland and Mussolini annexed Nice from France. Trump’s policy is Nazi law, as so many of his policies […]
The Ilhan Omar Effect? 50% of Americans now favor a Palestinian State (Gallup)
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A Gallup poll has found that for the first time in many years, 50% of Americans favor the establishment of a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank. I’m not sure what the other 50% think the Palestinians should do. Just stay stateless and without the rights of citizenship? […]
Back to the Sweltering Pliocene: World’s Production of CO2 Spiked again in 2018
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The world– you and I included– actually greatly increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, by 2.87 parts per million, raising the total to just about 410 ppm. So reports the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This was a significant increase, the fourth largest during the past 60 […]
© 2026 All Rights Reserved