I. History of Nowruz
Imagine it’s the fifth century before the Common Era, on a plain bejeweled with a magnificent palace complex and flowing gardens, with the coffee brown Zagros mountains in the distance, and a sky the color of...
February 1, 1979. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's fourteen year exile was finally coming to an end. From Neauphle-le-Château where he had spent only a few months after being kicked out of Najaf by Saddam Hussein (accounts differ on the Shah's...
The last month in Iran has been full of little clues and a few intrigues. I will try to pare them down. This update has been long coming, and before I become even more overwhelmed, I'll try to do...
OK how did our crack media outlets miss out on this story I found on BBC news?
Like usual our media is obsessed with the sensational stories, faux outrage, and politically motivated opinions instead of real news. It seems...
Huffy is doing it again. Any good news that does not fit their narrative must be instantly spun to the negative.
Case in point a recent poll by ABC News, the BBC and ARD German TV that attitudes are improving...
As a veteran of one war, I can see similarities in how we are conducting this war. We're really doing nothing different that what we did in Vietnam. We have developed and use the same formula in every major...
Ashura 1388 - December 27, 2009, begins over 1,300 years ago. During the three year reign of Yazid I (680-683 CE) of the Ummayad Caliphate, one man refused to swear allegiance to the caliph, he was Hossein, son of...
The American people still support the president's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan even if they do not support the war. My take is that Americans want a "strong" president like Hobbes' Leviathan.
In a recent CNN poll the...
30 Azar 1388 - December 21, 2009. The epicenter of the clerical establishment of Iran, the city of Qom, about a hundred miles southwest of the capital, was shaken by demonstrators mourning for the recently deceased Grand Ayatollah Hossein...
The military, for a number of years, had a draft. It was done away with in the 1970s and there has been an all voluntary military ever since. I think it is time we go back and re-institute the...
RECENT POSTS
I Believe in God, But I Hate Religion Part 2
The thought of eternal suffering is a significant motivator for those who are strong in their religious beliefs. It is also conducive to those who push various religious doctrines on their congregants to keep them in line.
People Are Stupid
“Democratic republics are more likely to perish through misuse of power than through lack of it.” — Tocqueville Democracy in America . It’s as if Tocqueville looked into the future.