The New Republic

From a reader in Iran: READ MORE >>

Minnesota governor and potential 2012 presidential nominee Tim Pawlenty made headlines yesterday when he criticized fellow Republican Olympia Snowe for her "deviations" from conservative GOP orthodoxy, and refused to say whether or not he was happy that she was a Republican. READ MORE >>

Salt Lake City, Utah Jon Huntsman Jr. wants to know if I'm in the mood for Mexican food for lunch. "I know a great place we can go downtown," the Utah governor says as we pile into the back seat of his black, tinted Suburban. (He goes there all the time, three of his aides separately assure me.) We drive south from Capitol Hill, passing the enormous Mormon temple in the center of town. The car finally turns into a Sears parking lot on the other side of the city, across the street from a pornography store that offers to "BUY AND SELL USED ADULT MAGAZINES AND DVDS." READ MORE >>

Geneva, Switzerland READ MORE >>

April 17: Should I Be Scared? Will Durban II spur the same anti-Israel, anti-Semitic vitriol that plagued Durban I? April 19: Libya On Trial Libya, an egregious human-rights violator, is the face of this year's conference--oh, the irony! READ MORE >>

Geneva, Switzerland READ MORE >>

ALISO VIEJO, CALIFORNIA--Jim Gilchrist, the founder of the Minuteman Project, lives in a one-story home in a gated community in Orange County. On a late August afternoon, the 59- year-old former accountant invited me into his backyard, which is strewn with potted plants, blue-and-white pinwheels, and a ladybug wind chime. "There are some Pakistani immigrants that live over there," he says, pointing over his fence, "and a nice Japanese family, and a Taiwanese family that lives around the corner. It's a great neighborhood." READ MORE >>

According to some popular Muslim accounts, the marble Kaaba structure at the center of the Grand Mosque in Mecca was built first by the angels before God created mankind, reconstructed by Adam, and later rebuilt by Abraham and Ishmael. It's safe to say that none of these builders could have anticipated the latest use of the Mosque's image, in a promotional DVD for the Abraj Al Bait Towers, a giant new skyscraper complex slated to be built just across the street from one of the entrances to the Grand Mosque. READ MORE >>

“I don’t know what I’ve been told, Roe v. Wade is getting old,” chants one group. “Pro. Choice. Is a lie. Babies. Never. Choose to die,” sings another. Others chant “Stop Planned Parenthood!” “Hey hey, ho ho, Roe v. Wade has got to go,” comes from further down the street. A platoon from the Catholic student group at Bowling Green State University in Ohio makes a catchy chant to the tune of rapper Soulja Boy’s sexually-explicit hit “Crank Dat.” READ MORE >>

Beirut, Lebanon READ MORE >>