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For Christmas: Jesus’ Life-Giving Breath and Persian Love Poetry
Christianity

For Christmas: Jesus’ Life-Giving Breath and Persian Love Poetry

Juan Cole

Muslim mystics such as Rumi, Attar and other Sufi writers often referred to Jesus as a symbol of spirituality and love.

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Trump Announces Plan to Break Up the Life-Saving National Center for Atmospheric Research

Trump Announces Plan to Break Up the Life-Saving National Center for Atmospheric Research

12/24/2025 By Yale Climate Connections

Can the American Dream Survive Trump until 2029?

Can the American Dream Survive Trump until 2029?

12/24/2025 By Alfred W. McCoy

More Stories

Africa
Obama warns South Sudan against Coup as US Plane comes under Fire

Obama warns South Sudan against Coup as US Plane comes under Fire

Obama warns S. Sudan against military coup (via AFP) President Barack Obama warned South Sudan on Saturday that Washington and its allies would cut aid […]

Juan Cole

Popular Culture
SNL:  Not only is Santa Black, but one of his Reindeers is Gay

SNL: Not only is Santa Black, but one of his Reindeers is Gay

Kenan Thompson and Cecily Strong make fun of Fox News’ Megyn Kelly and her silly insistence that “Santa Clause is white.” (See also IC’s take […]

Juan Cole

poetry
Walt Whitman’s “Salut au Monde” (Poem of the Day)

Walt Whitman’s “Salut au Monde” (Poem of the Day)

(By Walt Whitman) “Salut au Monde” [Greeting to the World: from Leaves of Grass, 1856] 1 O TAKE my hand, Walt Whitman! Such gliding wonders! […]

contributors

Iran
Iranian-Armenian Nurse taking an X-Ray in Isfahan, 1900 (Photo of the Day)

Iranian-Armenian Nurse taking an X-Ray in Isfahan, 1900 (Photo of the Day)

(By Juan Cole) This amazing photograph probably dates to 1900. Taken in at the Christian Mission Society hospital in Julfa, the Armenian neighborhood of Isfahan, […]

Juan Cole

Domestic Surveillance
NSA bribed Encryption Companies to Install Back Doors:  Was the Law Broken?  Did Obama Know?

NSA bribed Encryption Companies to Install Back Doors: Was the Law Broken? Did Obama Know?

(By Juan Cole) Reuters gets the scoop: the National Security Agency gave internet security firm RSA some $10 million to use an NSA encryption formula […]

Juan Cole

astronomy and outer space
Real-Life "Gravity:"  Space Repair Walk and NASA's Breakthroughs 2013

Real-Life “Gravity:” Space Repair Walk and NASA’s Breakthroughs 2013

CBS reports on today’s space walk by astronauts to repair the cooling system at the International Space Station: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration reports […]

Juan Cole

Drones
How many American Weddings would have to get hit by Drones before they were Banned?

How many American Weddings would have to get hit by Drones before they were Banned?

(By Tom Engelhardt) The headline — “Bride and Boom!” — was spectacular, if you think killing people in distant lands is a blast and a […]

contributors

Popular Culture
Video of the Day: Fox News wishes you 'Happy Holidays' (War on Christmas Fail)

Video of the Day: Fox News wishes you ‘Happy Holidays’ (War on Christmas Fail)

Cenk Uygur of Young Turks reports on Fox Cable News’ hypocrisy in hyping a mythical “war on Christmas” that allegedly involves forbidding the phrase “Merry […]

Juan Cole

art and photography
Sufi Center in Hama, Syria, c. 1900 (Photo of the Day)

Sufi Center in Hama, Syria, c. 1900 (Photo of the Day)

(From Gertrude Bell, Syria: The Desert and the Sown, 1908) Hama is a small, mainly Sunni Arab city in the center-west of Syria famed for […]

Juan Cole

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