The New Republic

Back to Bill Clinton and Chris Wallace, about whose pleasant encounter on TV I have not written. I leave that to the Plankers ( here, here, and here). READ MORE >>

I hope you haven't yet thrown out Sunday's papers. At least not the "Sunday Styles" section of the Times. READ MORE >>

Just in case you do not think there is a poisonous depravity seeping through Iranian culture, here is a report from MEMRI (the Middle East Media Research Institute) about the Tehran International Holocaust Cartoon Contest. Actually it is just a clip of a telecast from Iranian television itself. READ MORE >>

Will the new production of Mozart's opera, Idomeneo, play in Berlin or not? Mark Landler has been following up his New York Times story--originally discussed in my post "Artistic License"--about the cancellation of the performances due to the decapitated head of Mohammed on stage having offended local Muslims. READ MORE >>

Al Qaeda in Iraq has put out an audio wanted ad on a popular website, which, as an article by David Rising in today's Boston Globe puts it, "beckons nuclear scientists." Datelined Baghdad, the piece details the call for experts in "chemistry, physics, electronics ... especially nuclear scientists and explosives experts" to join the group's holy war against the West. READ MORE >>

According to a Reuters dispatch in Haaretz online today, Hamas massed a huge rally in Gaza earlier today to "denounce the state of Israel and declare that they would never recognise its right to exist." So what else is new? "We ask God to punish the so-called Israel and the allies of Israel ... We vow to God that we will never recognize Israel even if we would be all killed." In the case of the last contingency, of course, no one would care. READ MORE >>

The metaphor of "the book of life" or eitz chaim suffuses Yom Kippur, which starts with the threnodic Kol Nidre incantation on Sunday at sun-down and ends with the neilah service Monday night. But the metaphor applies to individuals, and not to the collective. Still, the people Israel now exists with the threat of mass murder by the president of a country that will soon have nuclear weapons, a country that has not bought in to the deterrent calculus which kept both the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union and its satellites secure in the cold--often touching on hot--war. READ MORE >>

Ramadan is the Muslim daytime fasting month. Among other obligations for believers is that during this period they must make particular efforts to abjure violence. READ MORE >>

The first time I heard of Uganda it was called Buganda, and a friend's husband, Sir Andrew Cohen, governor-general of the protectorate then ruled by the United Kingdom, had exiled the Kabaka to the top floor of Claridge's in London. Kabaka is another word for king. Still, not a bad exile. But, in 1962, the country became independent, with the Kabaka returning as president. Then, his prime minister, Milton Obote, overthrew the government and made himself president, which is the quaint African usage for dictator. This dictator was deposed in 1971 by Idi Amin. READ MORE >>

Kofi Annan is leaving. Yippee. It's not that he's leaving on his own. His (second) term is up and no one really wants him to stay, except maybe the Arabs, for whom he has done relentless service. In any case, there are seven candidates to succeed him. One of them, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, the president of Latvia who lived for half a century in Canada, has not a chance. One reason is that she's not Asian and, according to the rules by which the United Nations plays, this is Asia's turn. Sorry. READ MORE >>