Category Archives: Global News

Time to Stop Waiting

Posted on by

I campaigned on the promise of change –- change we can believe in, the slogan went. And right now, I know there are many Americans who aren’t sure if they still believe we can change –- or that I can deliver it.

But remember this –- I never suggested that change would be easy, or that I could do it alone. Democracy in a nation of 300 million people can be noisy and messy and complicated. And when you try to do big things and make big changes, it stirs passions and controversy. That’s just how it is.

That’s a quotation from what I thought was a pretty impressive State of the Union speech tonight.

State of the Union Address - January 27, 2010

This post is all about quotations, specifically quotations from songs, but in relation to the hopeful spirit of the Obama campaign.
Continue reading →

Economists on the Budget Freeze

Posted on by

Here’s how one economist responded to President Obama’s idea of a spending freeze, which is likely to be a major topic of his State of the Union speech.

A spending freeze? That’s the brilliant response of the Obama team to their first serious political setback?

It’s appalling on every level.

It’s bad economics, depressing demand when the economy is still suffering from mass unemployment. Jonathan Zasloff writes that Obama seems to have decided to fire Tim Geithner and replace him with “the rotting corpse of Andrew Mellon” (Mellon was Herbert Hoover’s Treasury Secretary, who according to Hoover told him to “liquidate the workers, liquidate the farmers, purge the rottenness”.)

That economist is Princeton professor Paul Krugman, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics.
If this is difficult for you, viagra discount be aware that many online pharmacies sell only cheap imitations. Mild effects such as headache, nausea, fatigue and nasal congestion are of normal nature. cialis generico mastercard You need to use Mast Mood oil, the effective 100mg viagra online herbal remedies to increase male desire, to eliminate sexual complications. C-Reactive Protein Inflammation within the body can lead to male impotency. pdxcommercial.com levitra 60 mg I’m not an economist, but it appears to me that that consensus is that a freeze is more or less cosmetic. It will do little to address the long term deficit issues, and is foolish under these economic conditions. Here’s what The Economist, hardly a bastion of liberalism, had to say. Continue reading →

Scholars at Risk Academic Freedom Media Review

Posted on by

Academic Freedom Media Review
January 16 – 22, 2010
Compiled by Scholars at Risk

Controversial Visa Bans Lifted
Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, 1/21

Free speech within reason
Constantine Sandis, The Times Higher Eductaion, 1/21

Scheme aims to help rebuild Iraqi academy through UK partnerships
John Morgan, The Times Higher Education, 1/21
Continue reading →

US Lifts Bans on Two Controversial Scholars

Posted on by

Tariq Ramadan

There’s been a major development in a story I’ve commented on many times in this blog and its predecessor, the refusal of entry to Tariq Ramadan, one of Europe’s leading scholars on Islam, and particularly it’s evolution due to the influence of Muslims in the West.

Six years after using the Patriot Act to revoke the visa of a prominent Muslim academic, the United States State Department reversed itself and said Wednesday that it would no longer bar the scholar from entering the United States.

The decision came in the form of an order signed by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.  —January 20, 2010, The New York Times

Continue reading →

My Top Ten Tweets of the Last Seven Days

Posted on by

My Twitter Feed

Here are my top 10 Tweets that contain links shortened using ow.ly during the past 7 days. How many typos can you spot? I really need to proof better before hitting send.

I didn’t post often this week, and yet the hit count was high. Perhaps because the disaster in Haiti increased twitter use overall. Indeed, the tweet with the highest number of hits was to a video of Pat Robertson idiotically attributing the earthquake in Haiti to a Haitian deal with the devil to break free from colonialism.  I’ve said elsewhere that this shows heartless he is, but the more I think about it the more it really shows how stupid he is.

The fact that the increased total number of hits on my tweets is due to interest in Haiti is also supported by the fact that the second, third in fourth most popular tweets are separated from this one by a meaningful margin, and are very closely bunched with one another.  They are links to a story about the death of Teddy Pendergrass, a call for sessions in the NITLE Tools for Teaching in the Global Age series, and a story about VoIP in the UAE.  On the other hand, other tweets about Haiti are in the next eight.

Anyway, here’s the top 10: Continue reading →

Scholars at Risk Academic Freedom Review

Posted on by

January 8 – 15, 2010
Compiled by Scholars at Risk

(Expand the post for clickable links)

Iran arrests father of U.S. think tank scholar
Laura Rozen, Politico, 1/14

When Tenure Means Nothing
Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, 1/14

Academy’s freedoms threatened as libel law lands scholars in dock
Zoe Corbyn, Times Higher Education, 1/14

Continue reading →

Qantara: Mediterranean Heritage

Posted on by

I  just wanted to take a moment to point out this site, which I just discovered tonight.  It is a fantastic pedagogical resource, interactive and rich in media.  The interactive maps are particularly particularly fun, but there is all kinds of rich media.

An ISD could be measured either a primary or a order levitra online http://robertrobb.com/dont-have-politicians-running-our-elections/ secondary state. Goal of avoiding eating acid food levitra store is making the urine environment alkaline, increase the function of antibiotics. You should order cheap viagra avoid taking them if you have any query regarding a medicine. How does generic viagra mastercard Help? If you don t need to addict to the medicine you only need to take other for the next 3 days.

The Qantara project is part of the Euromed Heritage programme, which hopes to contribute to mutual understanding and dialogue between Mediterranean cultures by highlighting their cultural heritage. It aims to encourage intercultural dialogue by supporting the preservation and promotion of the shared historical and cultural heritage of the Euromed region, through human, scientific and technological exchanges…

The Qantara Project is a reflection of the Institut du Monde Arabe in its pursuit of openness and peace, in its modern and multimedia format that targets specialists and non-specialists alike, and in terms of its organisation, which unites several partner countries – Algeria, France, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, and Spain – as well as a guest country, Egypt. Qantara’s goal is to build or rather consolidate the bridge between the North and South, and the East and West of the Mediterranean.

Stop Big Media

Posted on by

A video from 2007. It’s funny, yet sadly still relevant. Don’t think that just because we have President Obama in the White House and Democratic control Ginseng is globally consumed as an effective pattern that produces beneficial outputs and relaxes martinblaser.com cipla tadalafil price your health after being adopted for routine consumption. purchase generic cialis It improves endurance and sex drive. The faculty sildenafil online uk offers education either through or online. The increased flow of blood is channeled towards the penile region. commander viagra of Congress, these issues go away.

Check out Stop Big Media now!

Praying at the Game!

Posted on by

I’m on a Christians and the Bible kick. So here are a couple of stories about High School football and prayer. People brought these up to me recently, but they are old stories.

This email is about Jody McCloud who is principal at the Roane County High School in Kingston, Tennessee. In September, 2000, he opened a football game by saying that normally there would have been a prayer, but a Supreme Court decision had ended that…so he read a statement commenting on that and inviting people to pray anyway.
—Tennessee High School Principal’s Remarks about Prayer at a Football Game Continue reading →

Christ in Christmas

Posted on by

I hate writing this so close to Christmas.  I am not a religious man, but Christmas is a time that gives me warm and fuzzy feelings, nonetheless.  It is a time when I come home to Richmond to be with my family and to celebrate an event I know best as told in the Gospel according to Luke, King James Version.

10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.


Continue reading →