The sun has lassoed rooftops with its rays, and the king has splashed the light of day into my glass. Have some wine, for passionate love called out at dawn, saying ‘drink up’ every single day. Translated by Juan Cole from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 233
NASA Explains how We Caused the Hottest Decade and are generally screwing ourselves over (Video)
NASA’s 5-minute video explains why the last decade has been the hottest ever (we did it) and what climate change means for our hot, thirsty future. It is entitled “Piecing together the Puzzle” and is narrated in a slow, calm voice. But it should be entitled “Run for the Hills!” and should have been narrated […]
Libyans say CIA Tortured Them (Ross)
Alice Ross writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism President Bush and his CIA director Michael Hayden have each claimed that the US has in the past only used the controversial interrogation technique of waterboarding on three prisoners. This number, however, is being called into question by a Libyan dissident who has contradicted these claims […]
Omar Khayyam (172) “A passion for heavenly goddesses”
I hope my mind will always be consumed by a passion for heavenly goddesses, and that my hand will always cradle the juice of the grape. They tell me they hope that God will lead me to repent! But if he did that, and I didn’t respond, I’d be farther away than ever. Translated by Juan Cole […]
Dear Democrats: If you do That you have to do This
Dear Democratic Party: If you bring Gabby Giffords to say the Pledge of Allegiance, you have to bring up the issue of gun control somewhere in your speeches or platform. If you slam Republicans for foreign policy naivete, you have to explain why you just pissed off 1.5 billion Muslims by giving away all of […]
Top Ten Ways we are Better off than in January 2009
It is breathtaking impudence that Republicans should try to campaign on whether we are better off than were were in the last six months of the Bush administration. I can’t believe we are even arguing about this. Seriously? The country had fallen off a cliff in the last years of Bush, or rather had been […]
US covert actions in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia (Woods & Serle)
Chris Woods and Jack Serle write at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: Pakistan: August sees the highest number of CIA strikes in Pakistan since October 2011. A number of senior militants are killed along with at least two named civilians. Yemen: At least 26 people are killed in five confirmed US drone strikes in Yemen. […]
Science Fictional Despair in Deraa, Syria (Photo)
h/t The New Syria
Was the Rachel Corrie Verdict the end of Israel’s Judicial Credibility? (Marlowe)
Jen Marlowe writes in a guest column for Informed Comment August 28, 2012: Cindy and Craig Corrie and Sarah Corrie Simpson made their way into the Haifa District Court, surrounded by scores of journalists and Israeli activists and friends. They had entered this courthouse on fifteen previous occasions since March 2010, listening to the testimony […]
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