Month: November 2006

Ganging Up on Russia

Ganging Up on Russia
For the past several years, it has been clear to anybody that cares to pay attention that the world now has to deal with a very different Russia than the chaotic debt-riddled borderline basket case we all became accustomed to in the 1990s.

With a resurgent economy and flush with energy wealth, Moscow very much wants to return to its seat as one of the world’s great powers. At the same time, Putin’s Kremlin, seething with resentment after a decade of humiliation, appears hell-bent on using its new economic clout to punish those who dared to depart – or are trying to depart – from Russia’s orbit.

What they don’t appear to understand in Moscow is that these two goals are contradictory.

And the irony is sweet for Moscow’s former satellites. They now have the power to deny the Kremlin what it wants most – a seat at the world’s elite tables – unless it starts playing by a new set of rules. And at least for the time being, they are willing to wield that power.

The Nature of the Abaya

The Nature of the Abaya
How did men succeed in convincing women to transform the free personality that Allah endowed them with into enslaved characters wearing an abaya? The process was not simply a mental one. It was a combination of emotional factors which were cleverly exploited. Men used women’s weaknesses to make women believe that an important part of the male-female relationship was the man loving the weak and submissive elements of a woman’s nature. He then named these elements respect, honor and correct behavior. These do not exist objectively but can only be explained according to the individual man’s desire and will — in other words, a totally subjective conception.

What is strange is that women accepted the idea and were soon submitting themselves to the prison of the garment, the walking slowly, the looking only straight ahead — just to fulfill, it seems, what men imagined the abaya to be all about. Continue reading “The Nature of the Abaya”

‘Tweens’ Becoming the New Teens

‘Tweens’ Becoming the New Teens – Forbes.com
Child development experts say that physical and behavioral changes that would have been typical of teenagers decades ago are now common among “tweens” – kids ages 8 to 12.

Some of them are going on “dates” and talking on their own cell phones. They listen to sexually charged pop music, play mature-rated video games and spend time gossiping on MySpace. And more girls are wearing makeup and clothing that some consider beyond their years.

Parents sometimes gravitate to one of two ill-advised extremes – they’re either horrified by such questions from their kids, or they “revel” in the teen-like behavior. As an example of the latter reaction, she notes how some parents think it’s cute when their daughters wear pants or shorts with words such as “hottie” on the back.

Russia tips the balance

Asia Times Online :: Central Asian News – Russia tips the balance

The struggle for dominance of the world’s energy centers on control of the production of oil and gas fields, and therefore where and to whom that production will be offered. Russia, with help from China and India, is beginning to win this battle. Next, with new oil exchanges that don’t deal in US dollars, begins the assault on the greenback.
the fact that the West’s oil majors have lost control of all but 9% or 10% of reserves means that state-controlled oil companies can reroute any amount of product they wish from the New York-London exchanges to any of the new exchanges. This will provide a more than sufficient supply to guarantee the success of the new exchanges, and the US can do nothing to stop it. Continue reading “Russia tips the balance”

The Party of Sam’s Club

The Party of Sam’s Club
This is the Republican party of today–an increasingly working-class party, dependent for its power on supermajorities of the white working class vote, and a party whose constituents are surprisingly comfortable with bad-but-popular liberal ideas like raising the minimum wage, expanding clumsy environmental regulations, or hiking taxes on the wealthy to fund a health care entitlement. To borrow a phrase from Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, Republicans are now “the party of Sam’s Club, not just the country club.”

Therein lies a great political danger for Republicans, because on domestic policy, the party isn’t just out of touch with the country as a whole, it’s out of touch with its own base. And its majority is hardly unassailable: Despite facing a lackluster Democratic presidential candidate who embodied virtually all the qualities Americans loathe–elitism, aloofness, Europhilia, vacillating weakness–George W. Bush, war president and skilled campaigner, was very nearly defeated in his bid for reelection. GOP operatives boast that their electoral efforts were targeted down to the minutest detail, and that their marketing prowess delivered victory for the incumbent. The trouble is that even such extraordinary efforts delivered only a narrow victory

Jihadis and whores

Asia Times Online :: Middle East News – Jihadis and whores
Iranians already behave like a defeated people. That is why they are so unstable, and so dangerous. The new Persian Empire masquerading as an Islamic Republic is a wounded beast. The rural misery and urban squalor that drive Iranian women into the brothels of Dubai and Brussels contrasts sharply with neighboring Azerbaijan, whose economy will double in size by 2010 as new oilfields come online, according to the CIA World Factbook.

Half of Iranians do not speak Persian, and half of those speak Azeri. Azerbaijan’s oil wealth is a giant magnet; it must attract either the largest national minority in Iran, or the military attentions of Iran itself. If a Kurdish state asserts itself out of the ruins of Iraq – a long-delayed justice for that ancient and resilient people – Iran’s Kurds will be tempted to throw off the Persian yoke

Islamic Pleasure Marriages 

Crisis of Faith in the Muslim World, Part 2: The Islamist response.

Asia Times Online :: Asian News, Business and Economy.
Twice during the 20th century the nations of Europe fought each other for pre-eminence, with the result of their common ruin. Yet Islam’s decline was not an accident, nor is the fearsome response to that decline offered by the Islamist radicals. Born in militancy, Islam among the world’s religions offers a unique justification for conquest. The war that Islam will offer the West in its final throes will be a tragic, terrible, and prolonged war that cannot be avoided, but only fought to exhaustion. Continue reading “Crisis of Faith in the Muslim World, Part 2: The Islamist response.”

Jon Stewart of Baghdad Asassinated?

Gallows humour salve to despair – World – theage.com.au

Unconfirmed reports out of Baghdad are reporting that Saaed Khalifa has been killed. He was featured here in an Oct. 7th blog entry.
Nearly every night for the past month, weary Iraqis have been turning on the television to watch a wacky-looking man with a giant Afro wig and star-shaped glasses deliver the grim news of the day.

In a recent episode, Saaed Khalifa reported that Iraq’s Ministry of Water and Sewage had decided to change its name to simply the Ministry of Sewage — because it had given up on the water part.

Zakaria: International Commerce Is the True Battleground

Zakaria: International Commerce Is the True Battleground – Newsweek International Editions – MSNBC.com
Today we are living through something practically unique—simultaneous growth worldwide. The United States, Europe and Japan are all doing well, but so are China, India, Brazil, Turkey and a whole slew of former Third World countries. Their rise is powering the new global order. Emerging markets now account for 30 percent of the world economy and for 50 percent of global growth last year.  One important benefit has been that advanced industrial nations have maintained extremely low interest rates for almost two decades, enabling some countries—such as the United States—to grow faster than many experts predicted. This could not have happened without two global deflation machines, China and India, which keep prices low in goods and services, respectively.

If this sounds as if everything will work out fairy-tale style, it won’t. Global growth has its own complications. Demand for raw materials and energy is high and will keep rising. Countries that possess such resources—Iran, Russia, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia—become islands of exception to the very rules of markets and trade that are sweeping the world. Thus global capitalism produces its own well-funded anti-capitalists. Continue reading “Zakaria: International Commerce Is the True Battleground”