Culture

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – American white nationalism has attempted to appropriate certain cultures, times and places as quintessentially “white,” and so it is no surprise that, as John Blake at CNN writes, there is controversy on the American Right about the multicultural casting visible in the Amazon Prime series Rings of Power, based on […]

Authoritarianism

How Trump helped Sportswash Saudi Arabia

Tomdispatch

By Robert Lipsyte | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – Here’s the big question in Jock Culture these days: Is the Kingdom of Golf being used to sportswash the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia? Or is it the other way around? After all, what other major sport could use a sandstorm of Middle Eastern murder and human-rights […]

Books

In Honor of Salman Rushdie, Novelist and Stabbing Victim: Midnight’s Other Children, by Juan Cole

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Salman Rushdie, Booker Prize-winning novelist, was repeatedly stabbed on Friday at a literary event at Chautauqua Institution in western New York, where he was arguing that the U.S. should give asylum to persecuted writers. Allegedly one Hadi Matar of New Jersey, wearing a black mask, leaped up onto the stage […]

Books

‘Summer with the Enemy’ by Syrian novelist Shahla Ujayli is a searing summer read

The Conversation

By Michelle Hartman, McGill University | – Wherever you spend your summer, allow yourself to be transported to Syria and immerse yourself in the world of Shahla Ujayli’s sweeping historical novel Summer with the Enemy. The ongoing devastation of the war that began in 2011 has brought Syria to the world’s attention. Reading a Syrian […]

African-Americans

How Samuel Alito’s Attack on Privacy Rights could Make that famous Star Trek Kiss between Nichelle Nichols and William Shatner Illegal Again

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Steve Chawkins writes in the LA Times that actress Nichelle Nichols died of a heart attack on Saturday at 89 in Silver City, New Mexico. Nichols was cast by Star Trek creator Gene Rodenberry as Lt. Nyota Uhura, chief communications officer of the Federation star ship Enterprise and the fourth […]

Celtic Religion

In Celtic Culture, August 1 is a Harvest Feast for the Sun-God, Lugh, and its Traces are All Around Us

Hugh J. Curran

Orono, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – We are approaching August 1 which, in Scottish and Irish tradition, is the Feast of Lughnasadh (La Lunasa), also known as Lammas Day. It is one of the four most important festival days in Celtic countries and was originally meant to celebrate Lugh’s birth. Lugh (pronounced Lu or […]

Books

What I Can Still Love about My Embattled Country (and World)

Frida Berrigan

(Tomdispatch.com ) – It’s hot and hazy as July rolls around. Growing up in the Baltimore swamplands, we used to say, “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.” Meaning that the humidity was harder to deal with than the feverish temperatures. At some point in my family, the phrase morphed into: “It’s not the heat, […]

Culture

Why MCU’s Ms. Marvel matters so much to Muslim, South Asian Fans

The Conversation

By Safiyya Hosein, Toronto Metropolitan University | – (The Conversation) – The Disney+ TV show featuring Ms. Marvel, also known as Kamala Khan — the first Muslim superheroine of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), launched June 8 — and the internet has been alight with discussions about the lovable titular character. The comic book series, […]

Authoritarianism

Great Car Fight Movie Scenes Reminiscent of Trump’s attack on Agent Bobby Engel on Jan. 6

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Cassidy Hutchinson testified on Tuesday that Trump grew violent in the presidential limousine, nicknamed the beast, toward a member of his Secret Service detail. Trump had orchestrated the attack on the Capitol by the Oath Keeper and Proud Boys white nationalist militias and had promised them he would lead them […]